System, device, and method of virtual dressing utilizing image processing, machine learning, and computer vision

ABSTRACT

System, device, and method of image processing, particularly utilizing machine learning and computer vision. A user selects a particular shirt from an online catalog; and instead of seeing an image of the shirt on the shelf or being worn by a model, the system generates and shows to the user an image of that particular shirt being virtually dressed by that particular user. The user requests the system to show search results for blue pants; and instead of producing generic images of blue pants, on the shelf or worn by various models, the system generates user-tailored search results that shown various types of blue pants being virtually worn by the user himself, or virtually worn by a particular other person that is selected by the user. The system enhances the product image by correcting it and by adding realistically-looking shading and wrinkles.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims priority and benefit from: (i) United States provisional patent application number U.S. 62/372,813, filed on Aug. 10, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety; and (ii) United States provisional patent application number U.S. 62/482,195, filed on Apr. 6, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present invention is related to image processing.

BACKGROUND

Millions of users utilize desktop computers, laptop computers, smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices on a daily basis, for personal and professional goals. Many such electronic devices contain a camera, allowing the user to capture images, audio, and audio-video clips. Electronic devices are further used for a variety of purposes, for example, to browse the Internet, to play games, to perform word processing tasks, to engage in video conferencing, for Instant Messaging (IM) and online chat, and/or other suitable purposes.

SUMMARY

The present invention may include, for example, systems, devices, and methods of virtual dressing, utilizing image processing, computer vision, and machine learning. For example, an electronic device may be used to capture one or more images of a user; to analyze and process the image(s); and to generate a realistic image that emulates or simulates how that particular user would appear if he or she wears a particular article of clothing, or other article (e.g., accessory item).

The present invention may provide other and/or additional benefits or advantages.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block-diagram illustration of a system, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block-diagram illustration of User Handler Module, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block-diagram illustration of Product Handler Module, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block-diagram illustration of a Universal Dressing Module, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block-diagram illustration of Products Web Crawler Module, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block-diagram illustration of a system, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of two pre-processing images, which the system of the present invention may modify or may process.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of two images, generated or processed in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration demonstrating a first image which includes cross-matching lines, and an improved second image in which no cross-matching (or less cross-matching) lines are included, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of a product mask image and a user body mask image, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of a full image of a shirt, which is converted by the system of the present invention to a carved out image of the shirt.

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of images which demonstrate added wrinkle effects in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of a set of images as processed by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of other images as processed by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of still other images as processed and utilized by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of images as processed by the gravity effect estimation module of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a shape-diagram which may be used by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a schematic block-diagram illustration demonstrating a process of the Gravitational Effects algorithm of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a schematic illustration of a process of image enhancement, in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a schematic illustration of enhanced search results that are generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a schematic illustration of other enhanced search results that are generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a schematic illustration of still other enhanced search results that are generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a schematic illustration of yet other enhanced search results that are generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a schematic illustration of an enhanced product page that is generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a schematic illustration of an enhanced user-specific Product Page that is generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a schematic illustration of an interface generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a schematic illustration of an interface generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a schematic illustration of a user-specific Search Results page, generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a schematic illustration of a user-specific recommendations page, generated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a schematic illustration of a search engine interface, generated and operated by the system of the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a schematic illustration of automatically-generated editorial content, in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a schematic illustration of a system, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME DEMONSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

For demonstrative purposes, some portions of the discussion herein and/or some portions of the drawings, may relate to “clothes” or to a “product”, which may be virtually dressed or may be put-on an image or a user. This is only a non-limiting example; and terms such as “clothes” or “product” may comprise various types of items, for example, shirt, pants, dresses, skirts, shoes, and various other articles of clothing; accessory items or jewelry items or decorative items (e.g., necklace, bracelet, earrings, sunglasses, watch, reading glasses, piercing items, purse, bag, handbag, or the like), and/or other products or items that a person need not necessarily “wear” but that a person may wish to view how such item or product would look in proximity to that person (e.g., a decorative suitcase that a person considers to purchase, and would like to visualize how that particular suitcase would look when placed in proximity to himself). Accordingly, the terms “product” or “clothes” may comprise all such items; and/or may comprise a plurality or combination or assembly of such items, for example, a shirt and pants, a shirt and handbag, a skirt and shoes, sunglasses and necklace, or the like.

In accordance with the present invention, a user may capture a single image (or multiple images, or a video clip) of the user; for example, by taking a “selfie” image (or self-portrait image) of himself, or by photographing herself standing in front of a mirror, or by asking a friend to take a photo of the user. A local or remote application (e.g., client side, server side, native application or “app”, mobile application, web-site, web-page, or the like) may utilize the image, and may process or analyze the image of the user, in order to automatically improve it or prepare it for virtual dressing.

Optionally, the user may manually enter his gender, and/or his height, and/or other optional user parameters (e.g., weight; shirt size; pants size; or the like); and these optional parameters may further be utilized for enhancing or preparing the user of the image for virtual dressing of clothes or other products. Optionally, such data or parameters may be determined autonomously by the system, based on one or more other data; for example, based on the user's name (e.g., “Adam” indicating a male; “Eve” indicating a female), based on the user's appearance (e.g., identifying anatomical structure or features that are typical of a male, or a female); utilization of other objects to infer user height (e.g., if the photo also shows a standard-size item, such as an electrical socket on a wall, or a banana or an orange located on a shelf behind the user, or a published book whose dimensions may be obtained from an online source, or a smartphone or tablet whose dimensions may be known or estimated). Optionally, user height may be estimated by the system, based on a ratio between head-size and body-size of the user; or based on a ratio between head-size and size of other body organ or body part (e.g., arm; leg).

The system may further receive an indication of a product, such as a clothes item, that the user would like to virtually dress on his image. The indication may be provided by the user, who may select the item from an online catalog; or may scan a barcode or a QR code or a price-tag or a clothes-tag of an actual product in a store; or may capture an image of the product; or may enter or dictate or say a name of a product or vendor, for example, “Old Navy, skirt, model Barbara” which the system may look-up online or at a vendor's website in order to extract therefrom the items' data and image. The obtained image may then be analyzed and/or processed, to prepare it for enhanced virtual dressing or enhanced virtual fitting onto the image of the user.

The system may then perform a virtual dressing process, in which the image of the item is resized, enhanced, and/or modified, and then superimposed or pasted or otherwise inserted onto or into the image of the user. Optionally, shading effects may be added or removed, from the user's portion of the combined image and/or from the product's portion of the combined image, in order to generate a more realistic look of the combined image of the user and the product. Optionally, gravitational effects may be added or removed, from the user's portion of the combined image and/or from the product's portion of the combined image, such as by causing portions of the product (e.g., portions of the sleeve) to appear to be “dropping down” due to gravity, to in order to generate a more realistic look of the combined image of the user and the product. Optionally, folding or wrinkling effects may be added or removed, from the user's portion of the combined image and/or from the product's portion of the combined image, such as by causing particular portions of the product (e.g., stomach area of a shirt) to appear slightly wrinkled or slightly folded-in, in order to generate a more realistic look of the combined image of the user and the product. Other suitable effects may be used.

In some embodiments, the system may perform actual resizing of the product's image, in a manner that does not merely attempts to forcefully fit the product onto the image of the body of the user; but rather, in a manner that would allow the user to visualize whether a particular size of a particular product would actually fit this particular user. In a demonstrative example, a user who is 160 centimeter tall, and who typically wears a “small” size T-Shirt, may scan a barcode of an Extra Large T-Shirt. The system may perform suitable calculations to determine, that this particular shirt, if worn by this particular user, would create a visual appearance in which the lowest edge of the shirt reaches the knees of the user; and in which the short-sleeve of the shirt reaches below the user's arm. Accordingly, instead of trying to “precisely fit” the image of the shirt onto the image of the user, and instead of trying to show a perfectly-fitting shirt that is shown together with the face of the user or with an avatar or a model figure, the system of the present invention may actually generate as output, for example: an image of the actual user, showing his actual head and arms and legs, and showing thereon the pasted or superimposed image of the particular selected shirt, with the particular proportions true to life; such that the image that is shown to the user actually shows to him that if he would purchase and wear this shirt, then it would reach his knees and below his elbows.

Accordingly, instead of performing a simple resize operation, that would attempt to merely resize the chest area of the T-Shirt image to fit on the chest area of the actual user, the system of the present invention may perform improved re-sizing, that would allow the user to see an actual image of the user emulating his virtual wearing of this particular shirt (or other item) having this particular item-size, even if such item does not fit this particular user (at all, or partially, or perfectly).

The present invention may further enable a user, to obtain an emulated or simulated image which shows the user to appear to be wearing, concurrently, two different products that optionally originate from (or are sold by) two different vendors or sources; such as, a shirt made or sold by Vendor A, and a skirt made or sold by Vendor B. Each one of the products may be separately resized and enhanced, and the two (or more) items may then be overlayed or superimposed or pasted or otherwise inserted onto or into the image of the user; while also keeping true-to-life dimensions or ratios, allowing an oversized item to appear oversized in the combined image, or the like. Furthermore, the user may proceed to place a purchase order for the two (or more) items, via a single click mechanism, or via a single checkout mechanism; and a universal digital wallet or payment mechanism may be used in order to enable the user to perform a single checkout process with regard to multiple items that were collected from multiple different vendors.

The present invention may comprise a system, device and method that may allow a user to take a one or more photos of himself or herself, in order to virtually try-on countless products sold online and/or sold offline, and to see different looks of such products (e.g., clothes, accessories, or the like) shown in a realistic manner on the user's own image. The user may also virtually dress himself by scanning physical codes, such as QR-codes, barcodes, price tags, clothes tags, or the like, captured from physical clothes located in real-life shops; in order to similarly achieve a virtual dressing of the user's image with such items or clothes.

For each product, the user may also receive from the system one or more computed properties, such as the correct size estimation that fits one's body shape and/or measurements.

The dressing process may utilize image processing and/or computer vision methods, for example, with regard to the user's image and/or with regard to the product (e.g., clothes) image; and may include additional parameters inserted by the user and/or generated from external resources regarding the user and/or the cloth properties; for example the user may be asked to manually insert his height and/or weight and/or gender, and such data may be used by the system in order to further improve the output shown to the user. After the dressing process, the user may proceed to purchase a single product, or an entire multiple-item attire or assembly of clothes, from a single vendor or even from multiple different vendors (e.g., online vendors and/or offline vendors), optionally by using a single click mechanism, utilizing a universal digital wallet or payment mechanism.

Reference is made to FIG. 1, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration of a system 100, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. In a demonstrative embodiment, the system 100 may comprise six main components or units or modules, for example: a User Handler Module 101; a Product Handler Module 102; a Universal Dressing Module 103; a Products Web Crawler Module 104; a Universal Wallet Module 105; and an Offline to Online Dressing Module 106. Other suitable modules or units may be used. The User Handler Module 101 prepares the user image, which can be taken from different client types, for the dressing process using image processing, computer vision and machine learning. This module only needs a single user image that may be invariant, but is not limited to quality and camera angles in order to create a 3D estimation of the user. The process is not limited to using a single image; it may capture more images, videos or the like, for different scenarios (e.g., taking two pictures of the front and back in order to create a 360 degree look). The user handler module is further discussed herein, for example, with reference to FIG. 2.

The Product Handler Module 102 prepares the clothes image (or product image) taken from different vendor catalogs for the dressing process using image processing, computer vision and machine learning. This module needs only a single product image that may be invariant, but is not limited to quality and camera angles in order to create a 3D estimation of the product. Additionally, multiple product images or videos may give a better estimation and be suited for different scenarios. The product handler module is further discussed herein, for example, with reference to FIG. 3.

The Universal Dressing Module 103 virtually dresses a user (or an image of the user) with one or more different products that may differ in image size, vendor, type, fabric, light, shading, or other properties; while taking into consideration the user pose, user light scene, shading, and real-world gravitation, in order to create the most realistic simulation or emulated image. For each product, module estimates the recommended size for every user and changes the simulation accordingly. This module may evaluate the simulation combined with manual or external properties regarding the user and/or the product to give a better outcome; for example, the system may ask the user to manually enter or provide his or her height and/or weight and/or gender and/or clothes size (e.g., Small Medium or Large for a T-Shirt). The universal dressing module is further discussed herein, for example, with reference to FIG. 4.

The Products Web Crawler Module 104 allows the automatic or autonomous preparation of any web catalog product for dressing. The web crawler uses machine learning in order to get textual information about each product. The web crawler validates products' textual information in the web catalog. This module may be invariant, but is not limited to the products' vendors. The products web crawler module is further discussed herein, for example, with reference to FIG. 5.

The Universal Wallet Module 105 is a secure, safe, quick, and optionally one-click online shopping mechanism enabling the user to efficiently and rapidly purchase multiple different products from one or more different brands, vendors, e-commerce sites or other sources; including from online vendors, offline vendors, real-life stores, brick-and-mortar stores, used or pre-owned online stores or markets (e.g., eBay or CraigsList), or the like. A user may use the dressing module to create different looks that can instantly be bought as an entire look, or as an assembly of multiple items. The look may combine different products from different brands, vendors, e-commerce sites and/or retailers, and may optionally be available for purchase as a one-click purchase button or process, or as a multiple-steps purchase process. The Offline to Online dressing module 106 allows users to scan codes such as the QR-code, Barcode, Near Field Communication (NFC) tag, or the like, which may be attached to physical clothes or items in actual real-world shops or locations. This module allows for an instant virtual dressing experience of the specific in-store item onto the virtual user image, bringing the consumer from offline medium (physical shop/physical clothes) to online medium (application, web, electronic device, or any other platform that shows the simulation on the taken user image). This may further allow a user, that is physically located within a store, to virtually try on a product or an article of clothing, without actually finding and walking to a changing room, waiting in line, taking off clothes, putting on new clothes to try them on, taking off the new clothes, and putting on the user's own clothes; thereby saving the user precious time and efforts, and enabling the user to receive on-the-spot immediate visual feedback with regard to the look of a clothes article or other product that is virtually dressed on an image of the user.

These features and modules may be platform agnostic, and may operate on different client types (mobile, tablet, desktop, or the like) and/or infrastructures (server, cloud, web based, etc.)

Reference is made to FIG. 2, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration of User Handler Module 101, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. It may comprise or utilize the following processes or sub-modules or unit.

Image enhancement and perspective correction module—this unit or process enhances the user image before segmentation. The enhancements fix a large set of problems resulting from improper usage of the camera including, but not limited to a dark photo, a blurry photo, a noisy photo, and a grayish photo (very low saturation). The same applies, but is not limited to multiple photos and/or a video. This unit or process also corrects the user distortion caused by different camera angles using the user's height. This allows the unit or process to recreate the user coordinates in a 3D world (understanding, but not limited to the user 3D surface, one's distance from the camera, and the correct perspective distortion to add to the products that will be dressed on the user in the dressing process).

User extraction module—this unit or process extracts the image of the user from the background. This unit or process uses artificial intelligence techniques in order to distinguish between the user's body and clothes from the background. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to different user poses and different backgrounds.

Volume-metric reflectance map generator—this unit or process creates a 3D light map of the user. This unit or process uses machine learning and computer vision algorithms in order to create the user scene light map used in the dressing process. The light map creation may be invariant, but not limited to the user's original colors and shapes of the clothes and skin color. This process also creates the 3D surface for the user using the user's height.

Figure estimation module—This unit or process estimates the user figure under the clothes. This unit or process uses machine learning and image processing techniques in order to interpolate the user's body in areas where the skin is not visible because of, but not limited to clothes, light, and shadows. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to the user's pose and original clothing type, and the camera's perspective distortion.

Measurements estimation module—This unit or process estimates the user's measurements. This unit or process uses machine learning and computer vision techniques in order to correctly estimate the user's body measurements. This process estimates, but is not limited to the bust, waist, hips, and, for women, the cup size; and/or other suitable properties of a person.

Body completion module—This unit or process creates an artificial user body where clothes are covering the user's body. This unit or process uses computer vision and image processing in order to extrapolate the correct, but not limited to color, light, and shadows on the user's skin in areas where the body was hidden due to clothes.

Original garments in-painting handler—This unit or process erases the original user's clothes which are outside the user's figure estimation. This unit or process uses in-painting techniques in order to estimate the background which was hidden behind the clothes. The clothes in-painting may be invariant, but not limited to the user's clothing type, clothing fabric, and background colors.

Reference is made to FIG. 3, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration of Product Handler Module 102, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. It may comprise or utilize the following processes or sub-modules.

Product extraction module—this unit or process extracts the product from the background and from the model (if it exists). This unit or process uses artificial intelligence techniques and textual data in order to distinguish between the model's body, the background, and different clothes. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to different model poses, backgrounds, product shape, angles, and different product vendors.

Features and classification module—this unit or process finds the fundamental features of the product (shoulders, sleeves, etc.). If necessary, where the textual information does not exist, the method classifies the product into sub categories using machine learning and computer vision.

For example long sleeve, tight, and t-shirt.

Shape estimation module—this unit or process interpolates the product shape if the product was hidden by the model's pose using machine learning and curve fitting techniques. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to the model's pose and the areas hidden by the model.

Shape in-painting module—this unit or process fills in the hidden areas in the product that were interpolated by the shape estimation. This unit or process uses image processing and computer vision in order to fill the hidden areas and may be invariant, but not limited to the hidden areas' shapes, product color, texture, light, shadow, and folds.

Perspective and shape correction module—this unit or process prepares the product for the dressing by, but not limited to, giving the product a 3D volume, perspective distortion, and realistic color (if the product was not worn by a model). If the product was worn by a model, this unit or process prepares the product for dressing by, but not limited to, extrapolating inner parts of the product that were hidden by the model's body.

Reference is made to FIG. 4, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration of a Universal Dressing Module 103, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. It may comprise or utilize the following processes or sub-modules.

Product size estimation module—this unit or process estimates the recommended size for each product dressed on the user according, but not limited to the product size chart, type, and fabric. This unit or process uses machine learning to estimate the recommended size for each part of the body; for example, the method estimates if the product is tight, relaxed, or perfectly fits on the waist. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to different vendors and product size charts.

Product shaper estimator, to estimate product shape on the user according to user figure and/or fabric type: this unit or process transforms the product on the user using computer vision. This unit or process takes into consideration, but is not limited to the product fit, size, shape, and type, in order to dress the user as accurately as possible. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to product image size, product vendor and pose.

Estimator to estimate product shape on the user according to real world gravitation: this process or unit transforms the product on the user using computer vision. This process or unit takes into consideration the user pose and gravitation of the real world and how it affects the product on the user.

Module for Light extrapolation for the dressed product—this unit or process extrapolates the 3D volume-metric light map of the user to the products dressed on the user using computer vision algorithms. This generates the products, the user scene light and shadow that cause the dressed product to look more realistic. This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to the products' types and colors.

Module for Shadow estimation for the dressed product—this unit or process creates an artificial shadow on the user's body using computer vision algorithms. The shadows stem from the products dressed on the user; for example, short sleeves create a shadow on the arms. The process may be invariant, but not limited to the product type and color and user pose.

Module that generates and/or takes into account Limitations for products that overlap: this unit or process creates the limitations and conditions of dressing multiple products. For example, if a tight shirt is above a high-waist puffy skirt, then the skirt will be tighter on the body in the area where the products overlap. The skirt will start to expand after the overlapping area ends. This process uses a combination of real world physics, fashion rules, and computer vision algorithms and is capable of handling every type of overlapping product, even those products that do not necessarily exist in the real world (such as pants on a skirt). This unit or process may be invariant, but not limited to the products vendor and size and user pose.

Module for Perspective correction reverse—after dressing the user in multiple products, this unit or process reverses the perspective and distortion correction that was performed on the user image in the user handler process. This action causes the products to get the same perspective and distortion as the user had, making the simulation more realistic.

Reference is made to FIG. 5, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration of Products Web Crawler Module 104, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. It may comprise or utilize the following processes or sub-modules.

The crawler utilizes a learning unit to track scanned pages. Navigation through the different pages of a website is done by following inner website links Each page visited is identified as a product page (through data gathering, as explained below) or marked “unneeded” for further update. The process of updating data from a previously visited page is the same from this point forward.

The crawler operates to Find data in HTML tags—locate data in common HTML tags according to W3 conventions, which may include but not limited to: Meta data tags—provide trusted data provided by the page owner; Headers—hold major information in any web page.

Itemprop module: identifies and/or utilizes common HTML attributes found in well-formed e-commerce websites. Elements with the Itemprop attribute specify data such as price, brand, name, category, etc.

Module to Locate main text elements—scan web page to find large elements containing text such as description or summery fields. Many sites allow free text sections or lists with abundant information.

Module to Find known patterns in free text—Using a machine learning algorithm, locate patterns and known data structures (such as key-value pairs or table structure).

Module to Find known keys—Compare keys in found data against a known keys list and locate desired data. Unknown keys may be entered in the key candidate list.

A unit executing a machine learning algorithm which marks recurring keys in multiple pages with the same connotation and enters them to the known keys list.

The present invention may comprise a method and system for virtually dressing clothes on users, based on one full user body image (or, based on a set of two or more images of the user; or based on a single photo of at least a portion of the user's body, such as from the belt upward; or based on a set of such photos), using image processing, computer vision and/or machine learning. In some embodiments, the user may take several pictures or videos. In some embodiments, additional parameters and preferences, from the user and or external resources, are taken into account. In some embodiments, the clothes or products are from different brands, vendors and e-commerce sites. In some embodiments, the user scans a code attached to physical clothes (or other items, such as an accessory) in a shop. In some embodiments, the method may enable for shopping for clothes from different brands, vendors and e-commerce sites immediately, using a one-click universal wallet. In some embodiments, the method may comprise crawling clothes data from the web using machine learning; and the data stays constantly up-to-date.

Some embodiments may comprise or may perform the following: (a) virtual dressing, by overlaying or inserting or otherwise combining, a two-dimensional image of a product, onto a two-dimensional image of a user; (b) identification or determination or estimation of the precise body contour of a particular user, based on one or more images of that user in which he wears one or more clothes; (c) identification and extraction of the body contour of a particular user, based on a video clip that shows that user; (d) generation of a lighting map and/or a volume map, based on a user image, even if the user is wearing clothes or items that have different colors or that have different shading levels; (e) adding, removing, enhancing and/or modifying one or more portions or regions of an image of a product, and/or of an image of a user, in order to generate a realistic appearance of a combined user-and-product image; (f) enabling the user to purchase one item, or two or more items, which may be sold or made by different vendors, optionally by using a single-click or single-checkout button or process; (g) optionally, performing one or more of the methods or features that are described above or herein, with regard to (or by utilizing) a set of images, or a video clip, or a three-dimensional representation or a stereoscopic image of the user and/or of the product, and/or generating as output such three-dimensional representation or a stereoscopic image of simulated combined user-with-product.

The system may process user image(s) of himself or herself (or, of another person, if the user would like to check how a particular clothing article would look on another person), and may optionally extract or determine or estimate, for example, user gender, user height, user dimensions; without necessarily requiring the user to manually input such data; and optionally by utilizing machine learning to increase the type or number of images that the system is able to accurately process. Additionally, analysis of “big data” repositories and data-mining may enable the system to suggest to the user similar items, or items that the system estimates that may be of interest to the user, based on his past history of virtual dressing.

Reference is made to FIG. 6, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration of a system 600, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. For example, a product dressing module or algorithm receives input from two branches of modules: from a user image processing branch, and from product data processing branch. In the product data processing branch, a web crawler may crawl the Internet to obtain product data, including product URL data; and a product classification module may perform classification into classes or categories, as well as product image enhancement and improvement, prior to storage of product data and product image into a product database, that in turn feeds the product dressing module. In the user image processing branch, a user image is obtained from an application or an electronic device or from other source (e.g., from a profile page of the user on a social network); the user image is processed, analyzed and improved; and is stored in a user profiles database, together with other user data that is obtained or extracted or received. The output of the virtual dressing algorithm is provided to the user, via his electronic device; and may be further shared or sent by the user to selected recipients.

In some embodiments, the system may operate to separate the image of the user's body by itself, from any background that may be shown in the user's image, or to otherwise identify and erase or remove any such background that surrounds or that is behind the user's body in such image(s). For example, a user's image may be analyzed by using a computer vision process, in order to locate multiple (e.g., eight) initial points of interest: right shoulder, left shoulder, right elbow, left elbow, right wrist (or palm), left wrist (or palm), right foot, left foot. Optionally, two (or more) images, or a video clip, or stereoscopic image(s) of the user, may be analyzed; may be selected out of a plurality of images, or out of a video clip containing frames; and may be aligned to each other. Optionally, a volume map may be generated, indicating the three dimensional volume and/or distance and/or depth of each point or region in the image of the user. Optionally, a computer vision algorithm may be used, or other image processing techniques, to trace around the determined shape or contour of the particular body of the particular user as shown in the image; and to cut-off or remove or discard the data of the background, leaving only a “net” image of the user himself, or a masking component of the user's image by itself and sans its background.

The system may generate a volume-metric reflectance map, and may further perform equalization and image enhancement. For example, a blurry clothing article that was originally worn by the user in his original image, may be replaced by a focused or non-blurry image of the target product intended for virtual dressing; or, in some implementations, with an intentionally reduced-sharpness or increased-blur version of the product.

The Applicants have realized that typically, a user's image is captured in non-optimal conditions and/or by using a smartphone or tablet, thereby generating generate a user image having noise, blur, insufficient light, shaded portions, or other imperfections; whereas, in contrast, a product's image is typically or often captured by a professional photographer in a well-it photography studio. The Applicants have realized that an attempt to merely insert a resized version of a studio-quality product image, into a blurry or amateur-quality photograph of the user, produces non-realistic results. Accordingly, the present invention may, in some implementations, intentionally introduce noise and/or blur and/or shades and/or other imperfections, into a high-quality image of the product, prior to (or during) the insertion of such product image into the user's image; in order to thereby generate a combined image that features a generally constant level of quality, and thereby avoiding a situation in which the combined image shows a blurry user “virtually wearing” a high-quality image of a product. Optionally, the user's image may be enhanced or improved, e.g., by sharpening, noise removal, noise reduction, artifacts removal or reduction, anti-blur processing, lighting equalization, or other enhancements; in order to prepare the user's image to be close to the quality of the product image that needs to be adapted and inserted into it. Similarly, volume-metric map, lighting map, or other image-related data may be modified or enhanced, in order to subsequently allow compatible fusion of the user image with the product image.

In some embodiments, the virtual dressing module may utilize one or more superposition algorithms, in the frequency domain and/or in the time domain; and may optionally fuse together insights from two or more such algorithms. In some implementations, for example, frequency domain analysis may be performed by a Zheng and Chellappa algorithm; a time domain or temporal domain analysis may be performed by an Ikeuchi and Horn algorithm; and insights from both may be fused or accumulated.

Some embodiments may perform unification of the blur level, sharpness level, lighting, noise level, and/or other features of the user image and the product image; in order to contribute to a realistically-looking combined image. For example, blur level may be determined by using a Park algorithm and/or by Cepstral image analysis, to detect the strength (or intensity) of the blue and/or the blue direction. Optionally, a blue kernel may be determined, and may be applied via convulation onto the image of the product, in the virtual dressing process.

Similarly, unification of the noise level of the two images (user image, product image) may be performed. The noise level in the user image may be estimated or detected, for example, by using Kernel Laplacian algorithm for image convulation, and/or by using Fast Noise Estimation algorithm on the resulting data; thereby generating the noise level (e.g., the noise standard deviation) of the user image, and subsequently utilizing such or similar noise level in order to intentionally introduce a matching noise level to the product image that is being combined with the user image.

Similarly, unification of the lighting conditions may be performed; for example, based on statistical analysis of one or more regions or the user image, particularly of the human eye area or the white-portions therein, and optionally using such computed result as an anchor value for the lighting level of the user image; and subsequently utilizing such computed data in order to modify, or particularly to reduce or increase, the lighting level in the product image, in order to contribute to a realistically looking combined image.

The system may perform recognition and/or reconstruction of the user's body shape or body contour. For example, an initial mask of image of the user may be extracted or isolated; and a volume-metric reflectance map, as well as image equalization, may be used in order to improve the user image, and/or to particularly detect that the user image is of the type of “mirror selfie” in which the user stands in front of a large mirror and captures a “selfie” image by holding a smartphone or a tablet or other device, typically near or at the user's chest or stomach area; optionally by performing image analysis processes, which may detect or recognize a smartphone or a tablet that appears in the image, and/or by taking into account reflected flash illumination that is reflected from the mirror in such situation.

Optionally, the system may generate a correspondence between the user's image and a given mask; for example, by tilting or slanting body parts (e.g., arm, elbow, palm, hand) that are shown in the user's image in order to correspond to a pre-defined mask or visual template. Upon general or raw correspondence, a fine-tuning process may be performed, to fine-tune the correspondence and/or to correct imperfections in the user's image (e.g., to complete or to add body portions that were hidden or obstructed in the original user image). Optionally, user characteristics or dimensions may be deduced, based on image analysis, ratio calculations, and/or by using a height input that may be provided by the user.

The system may thus convert a user image, in which the user was standing in a non-neutral position (e.g., one arm behind his back; or, one arm folded and holding a smartphone over the chest; or, two arms bent and holding the waist), into a mask or template of a neutrally-standing depiction of the user. Optionally, a user's image that is not fully squared towards the camera, or that is slanted or tilted, may be modified to appear generally aligned towards the camera. The system of the present invention may modify or cure such deficiencies, that may be detected by the system to exist in pre-processing user images.

Reference is made to FIG. 7, which is a schematic illustration of two pre-processing images 701-702, which the system of the present invention may modify or may process. For example, an Arms/Hands Position Modifier may analyze image 701, may detect that the user's arms are being placed on her waist, and may perform a process that modified image 701 such that the user's arms would be generally-vertical towards the floor. Similarly, a Mirror Selfie Detection and Correction module may detect that in image 701, the user takes a selfie photograph in front of a mirror, such that the smartphone of the user is visible, and such that the arm or hand of the user is not in a natural position but rather is holding the smartphone facing towards the mirror; and that module may modify the image 702 to emulate or simulate a more natural position or location of the arm and hand.

Reference is made to FIG. 8, which is a schematic illustration of two images 801-802, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. For example, an original user image 801 (shown on the left side), may be converted into a User Mask or User Template 802 (shown on the right side), by a User Mask Generator module which may analyze the original image 801 and may generate the mask image 802.

The system may proceed to process: (a) the original user image, and/or (b) the “net” or cut-out image of the user's body only, sans the background, and/or (c) a mask or template corresponding to a user's body (e.g., the mask received from the product classification/segmentation module); and may proceed to generate a user-image mask that depicts the net contour of the body of the user, while also removing “bloated” areas that appear to be bloated due to the fact that the user is wearing clothes in his own image. The system may take into account various sizes and shapes of clothes, that the user may be wearing in his originally-captured image of himself, which may distort or bloat the body contour. The system may estimate the actual non-bloated or non-distorted contour or dimensions of the user (and his particular body parts); by analyzing one or more user image in order to extract volume or depth information. The system may estimate the dimensions of the torso of the user and/or of other relevant body parts (e.g., height and width of shoulders, chest, stomach, waste, pelvic area). The system may correct or modify the angular perspective of the user's image, may modify or correct or align the appearance of body parts in the user's image, and may modify or correct the horizontal perspective in order to generate an image of the user in a neutral position.

The system may modify or fix or cure inconsistencies or imperfections in the user's image, by smoothing and/or improving and/or modifying the contour line of the user's body image. For example, a Cost Matrix algorithm for matching among points, describing the distance(s) between histograms, may cause a match between two (or more) points in the user's contour image and one single point in the generic mask or template; and the system may intentionally avoid or cure this phenomena, by ensuring that each point in the user's body image is matched to a single and different point in the mask or template. Additionally or alternatively, the system may cure or avoid a situation in which a cross-matching of points occurs, such as, a lower point (A1) in the user image is matched to an upper point (B2) in the mask, whereas an upper point (A2) in the user image is matched to a lower point (B1) in the mask, thereby creating an “X” shaped matching, rather than two non-intersecting matching lines; and the system may cure of avoid this, by matching A1 to B1, and matching A2 to B2, to avoid such cross-matching. Optionally, local smoothing of the line or the curve may be performed, as part of such modification; and the cross-matching demonstrated on the following left diagram, may be corrected to non-crossing matches.

Reference is made to FIG. 9, which is a schematic illustration demonstrating a first image 901 which includes cross-matching lines, and an improved second image 902 in which no cross-matching (or less cross-matching) lines are included, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention; for example, by a cross-matching removal or mitigation module, or other line-smoothing unit.

The system may perform product segmentation and classification. For example, the system receives a product's image, such as a clothing article that is worn by a human model. An equalized volume-metric reflectance map is generated and utilized (e.g., in conjunction with an equalized lighting map), and textual information or meta-data about the product is obtained by the products web crawler. The system identifies uncovered body parts (e.g., arms of the human model, who is wearing a T-shirt); and performs separation among multiple clothing items that appear in the image (e.g., between the T-shirt and the pants, worn by the human model who is modeling the T-shirt). The internal and/or external boundaries of the product (e.g., the T-shirt) are cut. Optionally, contour or external boundaries of the product may be automatically completed, if some regions are missing (e.g., due to being obstructed by the hand of the human model). Optionally, the area or surface of such hidden or obstructed portions of the product, may be completed or filled-in. The system may cure or correct angular perspective of the product image, and/or perform horizontal alignment towards the camera if the original product image was not properly aligned. The system may thus generate a “net” image of the product, sans the modeling human, after filling-in missing portions or obstructed portions or hidden portions; removal of internal portions; curving of a lower-edge of the item (e.g., shirt) in order to provide a realistic non-linear edge view; and/or other suitable modifications or corrections.

Reference is made to FIG. 10, which is a schematic illustration of a product mask image 1001 and a user body mask image 1002, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. For example, a product image may be converted into a Product Mask/Template (image mask 1001); and a user's image may be converted into a User Body Mask/Template (image mask 1002).

Such conversions may be performed in advance for each new user, and for each new product enrolled or added to the system; thereby enabling the subsequent processing of “virtual dressing” to be rapid and efficient, and to build-upon the previously-prepared Masks of the product and of the user.

As part of the preparation of the Product Mask, portions of the product image may be removed, added, completed, or modified. For example, if the original product image (shown herein on the right side) depicts a shirt that is not worn by a human model, then the top area of the image shows a shirt region that should be hidden or obstructed if such shirt is later superimposed or overlaid upon an image of the user that performs virtual dressing. Therefore, such top area is cut or discarded or carved-out from the image, in order to allow the product mask to be ready for virtual fitting upon the user's image.

Reference is made to FIG. 11, which is a schematic illustration of a “full” image 1101 of the shirt (shown on the right side), which is converted by the system to a “carved out” image 1102 of the shirt; for example, by a carving-out module that detects and remove such excess portions of the clothing article that are typically obstructed or hidden when the clothing article is worn by a user.

In the above example, the Applicants have realized that this particular task may require a highly-sensitive or highly-accurate Edges Detection algorithm; since the internal portion of the original shirt image has colors that are almost identical to the colors of the external portions of the shirt. Optionally, the system, may utilize textual information or contextual analysis, in order to determine automatically that this item is a “buttoned shirt”, and to estimate that the Edges Detection algorithm should run at high accuracy at the top-central area of the image in which a collar typically exists.

The present invention may add, reduced, create and/or modify Wrinkle effect(s) on the product image or product mask, by a Wrinkle Effect adder or generator or creator module, in order to improve the realistic appearance of the product when virtually fit over an image of the user. Reference is made to FIG. 12, which is a schematic illustration of images 1201-1202 which demonstrate added wrinkle effects in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. For example, the left-side image 1201 shows low-quality wrinkle effects with square-shaped wrinkles, and the right-side image 1202 shows high-quality wrinkle effects with non-square wrinkles that appear more realistic.

In the above example, the improved wrinkle effect may be achieved, for example, by ensuring that each pixel that is missing or modified, is completed by taking into account the information from at least two (or at least three, or at least four, or at least N) neighboring pixels.

Reference is made to FIG. 13, which is a schematic illustration of a set of images 1301-1304 as processed by the system of the present invention. For example, the present invention may process a product image by completing hidden or obstructed regions of the product. In this example, a Dress (product) is worn by a human model, with two obstructions: the model's hair obstructs a portion of the top side of the dress, and the model's fingers obstruct a portion of the middle area of the dress. As demonstrated, the system may determine the general contour of the dress (e.g., removing the head and neck of the human model); and may then add the estimated contour lines that are missing (e.g., the top shoulder line, and the right-side dress contour line); and may then fill-in those areas with the suitable color(s) or texture(s) based on the nearby colors or textures; thereby generating (shown on the left side) a product mask that is useful for further virtual fitting, with curing of the previously-obstructed product regions. In the above example, the filling-in process may be achieved, for example, by ensuring that each pixel that is missing or modified, is completed by taking into account the information from at least two (or at least three, or at least four, or at least N) neighboring pixels.

In the above example, the system may utilize multiple images of the same product, as well as machine learning, in order to complete the hidden or obstructed product regions. For example, some online vendors provide multiple images of the same product, from different angles, or with different models, or with a single model that appears at different positions (e.g., front view, side view). The products web crawler may obtain all such images; and the system may utilize multiple images of the same product, in order to deduce the location and/or the features (e.g., colors, texture) of an area that is obstructed or hidden in the front-view image of the product. Optionally, the system may search for a repeating pattern (e.g., dove-tail pattern, zigzag pattern, chess-board pattern, zebra pattern, circles pattern, polygonal patterns, lines pattern) in the product, and may attempt to complete the hidden region by further repeating a detected pattern. In some embodiments, adaptive extrapolation may be used, utilizing regional hash tables.

The system may divide or isolate between two or more clothes that appear to exist within a single product image that is intended to correspond to a single product. For example, the products web crawler may obtain an image, that corresponds to meta-data or textual description of “shirt”; whereas the actual product image depicts a human model that wears a shirt and also pants. Based on contextual analysis, and/or based on meta-data analysis or classification analysis, the system may determine that it is required to isolate only the Shirt image from the product image, and to discard from that image not only the human model, and not only the background image (if any), but also to discard the pants image-data from that product image.

A suitable grab-cut algorithm may be applied, by utilizing the textual or contextual analysis results, to isolate only the shirt image, and to discard the pants image-portion and the other elements.

The system may further cure or modify or fix, a particular type of distortion that may occur due to angular perspective of imaging as well as the three-dimensional structure of the human body, as opposed to the generally-flat two-dimensional appearance of a shirt which is merely laid-down on a table for photography. The system may detect a non-curved, or a generally-linear, contour line of a product image, and may classify such product image as requiring modification. Classification may also be performed by checking points-of-interest in the product, which may be generated by the product classification and Big Data similarity module. Once the system detects a linear or non-curved contour line, an emulation or simulation may be performed, modifying the angular perspective of imaging to create curved contour lines; for example, modifying the angular perspective of the product image, from a full-frontal perspective, to an angular perspective as if the product is imaged from chest-level or neck-level.

Reference is made to FIG. 14, which is a schematic illustration of images 1401-1404 as processed by the system of the present invention. For example, image 1401 and image 1402 depict a less-realistic product image, in which the lower edge of the shirt is generally straight or generally linear or generally non-curved. In contrast, image 1403 and image 1404, generated by the system based on the previous images 1401 and 1402, depict a more-realistic product image, in accordance with the present invention, in which the lower edge of the shirt is generally non-straight or generally non-linear or generally curved. The Applicants have realized that in some implementations, modifying the edge or contour of a clothing article in an image, from a generally straight line to a curved line, increases the realistic appearance of such item.

Reference is made to FIG. 15, which is a schematic illustration of images 1501-1505 as processed and utilized by the system of the present invention. The system may utilize a virtual dressing module, to perform the actual fusion or combining or overlay or insertion or assembly or construction, of the product image and the user image.

The virtual dressing module may receive as input, the product image 1502 (optionally with points-of-interest locations identifiers) and the product mask 1501.

The virtual dressing module may further receive as input, the user image 1503 (optionally with points-of-interest locations identifiers) and the user body contour mask 1504, and optionally also a lighting map of the user 1505.

The virtual dressing module may ensure that the product image fits accurately when overlaid over the user image; optionally by resizing the product image (or product mask) and/or the user image (or the user mask).

Optionally, a gravitational effect module may modify the appearance of the product, when overlaid onto the user's image or mask, by simulating the effect of gravity on certain regions of the product; such as, by modifying sleeves to “drop down” or to have slightly lower edges, thereby creating a more-realistic combined image. The module may take into account, how gravity is estimated to affect each particular region or portion of the product, and not just the entirety of the product; but without obstructing the actual characteristics (e.g., patterning) of the product. For example, the module may estimate the effect of gravity on whether a shirt would, or would not, be immediately adjacent to a body part, or be spaced apart from it (e.g., vertically, diagonally, or the like), and may estimate how “form fitting” or non-form-fitting each region of the product is (e.g., sleeve, upper sleeve area, lower sleeve area, shoulders area, torso area).

Reference is made to FIG. 16, which is a schematic illustration of images 1601-1602 processed by the gravity effect estimation module of the system of the present invention. In some embodiments, for example, the module may take into account the particular shape of the product being processed; for example, some shirts may have a short-sleeve that opens up like a bell shape, and therefore tends to drop down due to gravity (as demonstrated in the left-side example of image 1601, and as indicated particularly by arrow 1611); whereas other shirts may have a short-sleeve that is tubular or elongated or pipe-shaped, thereby appearing to cling better to the arm and to have a reduced drop-down due to gravity (as demonstrated in the right-side example of image 1602, and as indicated particularly by arrow 1612). The gravity effect estimation module may take into account the detected or the recognized shape or style of the garment, in order to differently estimate the effect of gravity on each such garment, thereby producing a more realistic-looking processed image.

Furthermore, after performing separate estimations of gravity effect for each such discrete area or region, the module may proceed to ensure that the transition from one area to the next area is smooth and/or gradual, and that the depiction avoids or cures or modifies any sudden “jumps” or “steps” between portions (e.g., between upper sleeve area, which is form-fitting, and lower sleeve area which may be dropped-down due to gravity).

Optionally, a shading module may generate and insert shading effects, at selected places of the combined image, to make the combined image appear more realistic. The shading module may take into account, for example, the gravity effects as calculated, the level of dinginess of the product to the user's body, the lighting map that is associated with the user's image or user's mask, the existence (or the addition) of wrinkles or folded portions (which may thus cast a slight shade nearby), the position of the arms (or other body parts of the user), and/or other suitable parameters.

The product classification/segmentation module may utilize the product image, the produce mask or template, and data or meta-data about the product (e.g., as extracted or obtained by the products web crawler); may extract product characteristics and points-of-interest; may perform classification of the product; and may further generate tags or meta-data or classifiers about the product or its characteristics (e.g., has a collar; has long sleeves; has buttons; has shoulder-straps; generally symmetric product; generally a-symmetric product) which may subsequently be utilized to improve the virtual dressing process. The classification, classifiers, tags and/or other characteristics may be utilized for creation of a Training Database, which may be utilized by a machine learning module in order to efficiently and accurately absorb into the system new products. For example, insights or techniques that were already extracted with regard to a Dress that has a Collar and Buttons and Long Sleeves, may later be applied or re-used when a new product is absorbed or imported into the system and its meta-data (or its initial image processing analysis) indicates that it is, similarly, such a particular Dress. This may allow efficient and accurate absorption of new products, even if little or no meta-data exists about them.

The products web crawler may crawl the web, by using Discover techniques and/or Re-Visit techniques; and may import, download and/or extract images of products, as well as data, meta-data, descriptors, and/or other product information (e.g., price, vendor, maker, model name, model number, or the like). Textual analysis and/or contextual analysis may be used, to extract available product sizes, product dimensions, available destinations for shipping, or the like. Pairs of Key/Value items may be extracted and analyzed (e.g., “Size”/“Medium”). Optionally, textual analysis and rule-based learning techniques may be used; as well as extraction and mapping of HTML tags, and prioritizing them based on level of relevancy or importance for the purpose of virtual dressing, and/or prioritizing them or ordering them by taking into account on-screen location and/or font size and/or font characteristics (e.g., a larger, bold font, may be associated with information of greater priority or greater relevance). Optionally, higher-priority elements may be processed or analyzed before lower-priority elements, in order to ensure that the system resources are utilized efficiently.

In some embodiments, the system may comprise, or may be implemented as, a Software Development Kit (SDK) or an Application Programming Interface (API), that may allow third-party developers or vendors to interface with the system, or to implement their own version (e.g., branded, white label, or the like) of the system, in an efficient manner Some embodiments may utilize one or more algorithms to determine or estimate real-life dimensions of a user, or of particular body parts or body regions of a user, based on one or more images of the user.

A first demonstrative algorithm estimates or determines the hips circumference of the user. The algorithm utilizes one or more of the following data, which may be generated by the system and/or may be extracted from an image of the user: the Mask image of the user; the point in which the two legs of the user connect to each other (p); the central points of the two knees (lk, rk); the external or most-external points of the left hip and the right hip (lh, rh); the head point, such as the highest point of the forehead (fh); a point in the ground or floor on which the user is standing, such as the floor point that is closes to the user (f); the height of the user (H). Some or all of these parameters may be extracted from the user image; optionally after removing possible image distortion due to an original angular perspective, thereby enabling a constant conversion ratio all across the image between pixel-based dimensions and on-screen centimeter-based (or inches-based) dimensions. The constant ratio may be obtained by dividing the height of the user in pixels, by the height of the user in centimeters (or inches); and this constant ratio is used further in this algorithm.

The estimation or calculation of hips circumference of the user may take into account the following: (a) that the cross-section of the leg, in the region of connection of the leg to the pelvic area, is generally circular; (b) that the cross-section of the region that is subject of the estimation, namely the two hips cross-section, is generally elliptic or generally oval; (c) that the sum of two cross-sections of the two legs, at the point of the legs connection, is generally similar to the area of the subject of estimation, namely the area of the two hips cross-section; (d) that the two generally-circular areas, of the two cross-sections of the legs at the legs connection point, are generally tangent to each other or are just touching each other, with little or with no overlap between the two circular areas; and/or (e) that the generally-elliptic area of the two hips, is generally tangent or just touching (or, is generally overlapping with, or is a good estimation of) the two circles of the legs cross-section, at two points that are furthest from the touching point of the two circles themselves.

Reference is made to FIG. 17, which is a schematic illustration of a shape-diagram 1701 which may be used by the system of the present invention. For example, demonstrated are the generally-elliptic area 1711 of the two hips cross-section, which corresponds to the two circles 1712-1713 of the legs' cross-sections.

By using the User Image Mask, the point of legs connection (p), and the external points of the hips (lh, rh), the system computes the radius of each one of the circular cross-sections; and thus computes the areas of those two circular cross-sections. The sum of the two circular areas, is identical or is similar to the area of the ellipse which corresponds to the two hips area. The ellipse is described by the equation: x2/a2+y2/b2=1. The value of “a” is computed as twice the radius of one circle. Based on the above equation and data, and since the area of the ellipse is known (as the sum of the areas of the two circles), the value of “b” can be computed. Based on the values of “a” and “b”, the circumference of the ellipse is computed, which in turn corresponds to the estimated hips circumference.

Some embodiments may estimate or determine the waist circumference of a user, based on an image of the user. The process may utilize some or all of the following: the user image Mask, optionally after removing from it angular perspective; the point of height of the waist (w), after removal of perspective; the hips circumference (HC) as computed above; the “b” parameter of the ellipse as computed above; the constant ratio of pixel-to-centimeter conversion, as computed above; the user height (denoted H or UH).

Based on the user image Mask, and the point of height of the waist (w), the waist diameter (or the waist width) is computed (WD), in pixels; and is then converted to centimeters by using the constant conversion ratio. The waist circumference (WC) may then be computed by using the following equation:

WC=2*WD+(HC/UH)^(α) ·WD+(HC/UH)^(β) ·b

The values of parameters “α” and “β” may be established, for example, by analyzing data of actual waist circumferences of a large number of persons (e.g., over 100 or over 1,000 persons). Some embodiments may estimate or determine the bust circumference, or the circumference of the chest area of a user, based on a user's image. The process may utilize some of the above-mentioned parameters and data, as well as the external or most-external points of the bust (lb, rb) after removal of angular perspective.

Based on the user image Mask, and the external points of the bust (lb, rb), the bust diameter (or bust width) is computed (BD), and converted from pixels to centimeters via the constant conversion ratio. The bust circumference (BC) may be computed by using the following equation:

BC=2*BD+(HC/UH)^(γ) ·BD−(HC/UH)^(δ) ·WD

The values of parameters “γ” and “δ” may be established, for example, by analyzing data of actual bust circumferences of a large number of persons (e.g., over 100 or over 1,000 persons). Some embodiments may estimate or detect the cup size of a user, particularly of a female user, based on the image of the user and/or based on one or more of the parameters or data that were obtained or computed above. For example, the cup size may be estimated based on a ratio between: the waist circumference (WC) and the hips circumference (HC) of the user.

In a demonstrative embodiment, the following determinations or conditions may be used: if WC/HC is smaller than or equal to a first pre-defined ratio R1, then the cup size is “B”; if WC/HC is greater than R1, and is smaller than or equal to R2, then the cup size is “C”; if WC/HC is greater than R2, then the cup size is “D”. In a demonstrative implementation, R1 is 0.71, and R2 is 0.78. Other suitable ratio values and/or conditions may be used.

Some embodiments of the present invention may utilize a Gravitational Effect module, which may utilize the following algorithm for gravitational simulation of dressing or virtual dressing.

Demonstrative Algorithm for Gravitational Simulation of Dressing

This algorithm transforms the control and the sample points of the dress according to the gravitational forces that are acting on the cloth. The algorithm is transforming the control and the sample points of both shirts and pants. It is considering all the gravitational forces that are acting on all parts of the user's body as a function of the user's posture.

Gravitational Transformation of the Control Points:

This algorithm is transforming the dress' control points according to the gravitational forces.

This algorithm is using the following data: The dress' control points; the user's mask.

Demonstrative Description of the Algorithm's Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is calculating the distance between each of the         control points and the user's mask. The distance between a         control point and the user's mask is defined as the distance         between the control point and the point on the mask which is the         closest to it.     -   The algorithm decides if the garment is a shirt or pants         according to the set of control points in the input.     -   A. If the garment is a shirt, then:         -   The shirt is divided into multiple parts; for example:             -   The part between the shoulder and the elbow (right arm                 and left arm). Herein part 1.             -   The part between the elbow and the wrist (right arm and                 left arm). Herein part 2.             -   The part between the arm pit and the hips. Herein part                 3.         -   The algorithm is calculating the angle of each part of the             shirt with respect to the ground.         -   The left and the right shoulder points are transformed to             the closest point on the mask.         -   The left and the right armpit points are not being             transformed.         -   On the arms, each outer point is transformed so that its new             distance from the mask is:

=

·sin(α)

-   -   -   Where l′ is the new distance between the point and the mask,             l is the initial distance between the point and the mask,             and α is the angle between the relevant part of the arm and             the ground. For the elbow points, the relevant part on the             arm is part 1, for the wrist points the relevant part is             part 2.         -   The inner points on the arm are transformed so that their             new distance from the mask will be:

k′=k+

−

·sin(α)

-   -   -   Where k′ is the new distance between the point and the mask,             k is the initial distance between the point and the mask, l             is the initial distance between the corresponding outer             point and the mask, and α is the angle between the relevant             part of the arm and the ground.         -   The algorithm is transforming the control points on part 3             of the shirt. The algorithm decides which of the left and             right hips points is farther from the ground according to             the angle of part 3. The algorithm then transforms the             farther hips point so its distance from the mask will be:

m′=m·sin(β)

-   -   -   Where m′ is the new distance of the point from the mask, m             is the initial distance of the point from the mask, and β is             the angle between part 3 and the ground. The hips point that             is closer to the ground is transformed so that its distance             from the ground is:

n′=n+m−m·sin(β)

-   -   -   Where n′ is the new distance of that hips point from the             mask, n is the initial distance of this point from the mask,             m is the initial distance of the farther hips point from the             ground, and β is the angle between part 3 and the ground.

    -   B. If the garment is pants, then:         -   The pants are divided into multiple parts, for example:             -   The part between the hips and the knee (right leg and                 left leg). Hereafter part 4.             -   The part between the knee and the ankle (right and left                 legs). Hereafter part 5.         -   The algorithm is calculating the angle of each part of the             pants with respect to the ground.         -   The left and the right hips points are transformed to the             closest point on the mask.         -   The left and the right middle leg points are not being             transformed.         -   Each outer point on the legs is transformed so its distance             from the mask is:

p′=p·sin(γ)

-   -   -   Where p′ is the new distance between the point and the mask,             p is the initial distance between the point and the mask,             and γ is the angle between the relevant part of the leg and             the ground. For the knee points, the relevant part is part 4             and for the ankle points the relevant part is part 5.         -   The inner points on the legs are transformed so that their             distance from the mask is:

q′=q+p−p·sin(γ)

-   -   -   Where q′ is the new distance between the point and the mask,             q is the initial distance between the point and the mask, p             is the initial distance between the corresponding outer             point and the mask, and γ is the angle between the relevant             part of the leg and the ground.

Initial Transformation of the Sample Points:

This algorithm is transforming the dress' sample points according to the transformation of the control points. The algorithm is using the following data:

-   -   The dress' initial control points (before the transformation).     -   The dress' new control points.     -   The sample points.     -   The user's mask.

Demonstrative Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm first calculates an equation of a straight line         (initial line) between each couple of initial control points of         each part (inner and outer).     -   The algorithm is calculating the distance between each sample         point and the relevant initial line.     -   The algorithm is calculating an equation of a straight line (new         line) between each two new control points of each part (inner         and outer).     -   The algorithm is transforming each sample point to a new         position that uphold the conditions:         -   Its distance from the relevant new line is the same as its             initial distance from the relevant initial line.         -   In the initial position of the sample point, the algorithm             is finding the point on the initial line which is closest to             it. Then it calculates the distance between the point on the             line and the left edge of the initial line. We denote this             distance by d1. The definition of d2 is the same as d1 but             for the new position of the sample point and the new line.             Then the algorithm calculates the length of the initial line             (l1) and the length of the new line (l2). Then the condition             is:

$\frac{d\; 1}{d\; 2} = \frac{l\; 1}{l\; 2}$

Gravitational Transformation of the Sample Points:

-   -   This algorithm transforms the sample points according to the         gravitational forces that are acting on the dress. The algorithm         is using the following data:     -   The dress' sample points.     -   The user's mask.     -   The angles of parts 1-5.

Demonstrative Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   Each sample point is related to a specific part of the body         (parts 1-2 left arm or right arm, inner or outer, part 4 left or         right, and part 5 left leg or right leg, inner or outer).     -   The inner sample points (parts 1, 2, and 5) and the hips point         that is closest to the ground are not being transformed.     -   The algorithm is calculating the distance of all the other         sample points from the user's mask.     -   Each of these sample points is transformed so that its new         distance from the mask will be the current distance times the         sine of the angle of the relevant part.

Reference is made to FIG. 18, which is a schematic block-diagram illustration demonstrating a process 1800 of the above-mentioned Gravitational Effects algorithm, as described above.

The present invention may utilize an algorithm for removal, modification, reduction and/or adding of shades or shading or shadows from an image of a user and/or from and image of a product and/or from a combined image of user-and-product; for example, the following demonstrative algorithm may be used.

Demonstrative Algorithm for a Removal/Reduction/Modifications of Shadows (e.g., from Users Images) and an Improvement of the Quality of the Image

This algorithm detects a shadow on a user and removes it, balance the colors in the image, brightens the image, and reduces red color from the user's skin if necessary.

1. Shadow Detection

-   -   This function checks detects a shadow on the user. The         function's decision is based on the face of the user.     -   The function is using the following data:         -   The original image.         -   The seen body mask.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The function is using “Viola-Jones Algorithm” for face         detection. Then the seen body mask is cut down from the lower         part of the face box. The seen body mask is now a face mask.     -   The function is using “Viola-Jones Algorithm” for eyes         detection. The function splits the face mask to right and left         according to the horizontal center between the left and the         right eyes of the user. The function now has the user's left         face mask and right face mask.     -   The function is using the left and the right face masks to         calculate the median value of the luminance of both sides of the         face, as well as the standard deviation value of the luminance         of both sides of the face. Then the function checks the         following conditions:         -   If the difference in the median of the luminance between the             left and the right sides of the user's face is higher than             80 AND the amount of pixels with luminance of 255 in the             left side of the face is less than 5 AND the amount of             pixels with luminance of 255 in the right side of the face             is less than 5 then the function returns true for shadow.         -   If the standard deviation of the luminance of both the left             and the right sides of the face is higher than 32, then the             function returns false for shadow.         -   If the median of the luminance of both the left and the             right sides of the face is higher than 90, then the function             returns false for shadow.         -   In any other case the function returns true for shadow.

2. Background Flash Detection

-   -   This function checks if there is a certain amount of bright         pixels in the background (outside the user's body) of the image.     -   The function is using the following data:         -   The original image.         -   The user's mask that is composed from the shirt mask, the             pants mask, and the seen body mask.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm counts the number of pixels of luminance: 252,         253, 254, and 255, here denoted as n(252), n(253), etc. The         function returns true for background flash if the following         condition is true:

${4 \cdot \frac{{0.1 \cdot {n(252)}} + {0.15 \cdot {n(253)}} + {0.2 \cdot {n(254)}} + {0.6 \cdot {n(255)}}}{N}} \geq 0.01$

-   -   Where N is the total number of pixels in the image.

3. Shadow Removal Algorithm

-   -   This algorithm removes a small amount of shade from the image in         each iteration until the shadow detection function does not         detect a shadow.     -   The algorithm is using the following data:         -   The original image.         -   The seen body mask.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   This algorithm operates in iterations. The two conditions two         enter an iteration are:         -   a. The shadow detection function detects a shadow.         -   b. The fraction of pixels with a red value of 255 on the             face of the user is less than 0.007.     -   The algorithm is working in the luminance space of the image. It         is using a pre-defined function that describes the output         luminance of the image as a function of its input luminance. In         each iteration this function is applied to the image. The more         iterations, the brightened the image will be.

4. Black Balance Algorithm

-   -   This algorithm is stretching down the luminance of each of the         three color channels: red, green, and blue down to zero.     -   The algorithm is using the following data:         -   The image after the shadow removal algorithm.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is calculating the mean luminance of each of the         three color channels: red, green, and blue. Hereafter, the         channels with highest, second highest, and lowest luminance are         called: first channel, second channel, and third channel         respectively.     -   The algorithm maps the pixels of the image in terms of color         domination. I.e. the dominant color of a pixel is the one with         the highest luminance     -   The algorithm stretches the third channel so that 5% of the         pixels in this channel will have a luminance value of 0 (a         stretch is not being performed in the case where there are         already 5% or more pixels in this channel with a luminance value         of 0).     -   The algorithm is stretching the second channel. The algorithm is         stretching this channel as much as possible, under two         conditions:         -   a. The mean luminance of the second channel does not become             lower than the mean luminance of the third channel.         -   b. In pixels where the third channel had originally lower             luminance than the second channel, after this stretch, the             third channel must have a lower luminance than the second             channel.     -   The algorithm is stretching the first channel. The algorithm is         stretching the channel as much as possible under two conditions:         -   a. The mean luminance of the first channel does not become             lower than the mean luminance of the second channel.         -   b. The order of color domination in each pixel after the             stretch must remain as it was in the original image.

5. White Balance Algorithm

-   -   This algorithm is stretching up the three color channels of the         image: red, green, and blue.     -   This algorithm is using the following data:         -   The image after the black balance algorithm.         -   The user's mask.         -   The seen body mask.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is calculating the mean luminance of the three         color channels: red, green, and blue.     -   The algorithm is mapping the pixels of the image in terms of         color domination. I.e. the dominant color of a pixel is the one         with the highest luminance.     -   The algorithm is stretching the luminance of the first channel         up until one of the following conditions met:         -   a. 5% of the pixels in the background have a luminance of             255 in the first channel.         -   b. There are pixel on the user's mask that have luminance of             255 in the first channel.     -   The second channel is stretched up as much as possible under the         following conditions:         -   a. The mean luminance of the second channel does not exceed             the mean luminance of the first channel.         -   b. For pixels with a total luminance higher than 40 where             the first channel had ORIGINALLY higher luminance than the             second channel; after the stretch, in no more than a             fraction of 0.04 of these pixels, the first and the second             channels can change orders in terms of luminance magnitude.         -   c. For pixels on the user's skin, with a total luminance             higher than 40 where the first channel had ORIGINALLY higher             luminance than the second channel; after the stretch, in no             more than a fraction of 0.01 of these pixels, the first and             the second channels can change orders in terms of luminance             magnitude.     -   The third channel is stretched up as much as possible under the         following conditions:         -   a. The mean luminance of the third channel does not exceed             the mean luminance of the second channel.         -   b. For pixels with a total luminance higher than 40 where             the second channel had originally higher luminance than the             third channel; after the stretch, in no more than a fraction             of 0.08 of these pixels, the second and the third channels             can change orders in terms of luminance magnitude.         -   c. For pixels with a total luminance higher than 40 where             the first channel had originally higher luminance than the             third channel; after the stretch, in no more than a fraction             of 0.08 of these pixels, the first and the third channels             can change orders in terms of luminance magnitude.         -   d. For pixels on the user's skin, with a total luminance             higher than 40 where the second channel had originally             higher luminance than the third channel; after the stretch,             in no more than a fraction of 0.09 of these pixels the             second and the third channels can change orders in terms of             luminance magnitude.         -   e. For pixels on the user's skin, with a total luminance             higher than 40 where the first channel had originally higher             luminance than the third channel; after the stretch, in no             more than a fraction of 0.07 of these pixels, the first and             the third channels can change orders in terms of luminance             magnitude.

6. Uniform Stretch Algorithm

-   -   This algorithm is stretching up uniformly the three color         channels of the image.     -   The algorithm is using the following data:         -   The original image.         -   The image after the white balance algorithm (color balanced             image).         -   The user's mask.         -   The seen body mask.         -   The face mask.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is stretching up the total luminance of the color         balanced image under several conditions. The conditions depend         on the result of the background flash detection function and on         whether the shadow removal algorithm was applied to the image at         least once.         -   A. The background flash detection function returns true and             the shadow removal algorithm was applied. Here the term “new             pixels” refers to pixels whose luminance in the original             image was less than 255. The conditions to stop the             stretching in this case are:             -   The amount of new pixels with a luminance value of 255                 in the image is not allowed to exceed a fraction of 0.03                 of the total amount of pixels in the image.             -   The amount of new pixels with a red channel value of 255                 in the image is not allowed to exceed a fraction of 0.05                 of the total amount of pixels in the image.             -   The amount of new pixels with a luminance value of 255                 on the user's body is not allowed to exceed a fraction                 of 0.02 of the total amount of pixels on the user's                 body.             -   No more than a fraction of 0.005 of the pixels on the                 face are allowed to have a luminance value of 255.         -   B. The conditions to stop the stretching in the case where             the background flash detection function returns false OR the             shadow removal algorithm was not applied to the image:             -   No more than a fraction of 0.04 of the pixels in the                 image are allowed to have a luminance value of 255.             -   No more than a fraction of 0.06 of the pixels in the                 image are allowed to have a red channel value of 255.             -   No more than a fraction of 0.05 of the pixels on the                 user's body are allowed to have a luminance value of                 255.             -   No more than a fraction of 0.005 of the pixels on the                 user's face are allowed to have a luminance value of                 255.     -   The algorithm also returns the stretch factor for the case where         only the first condition was applied in both A. and B.

7. Red Skin Reduction Algorithm

-   -   This algorithm reduces the amount of red on the user's skin if         necessary.     -   The algorithm is using the following data:         -   The image after the uniform stretch algorithm (uniformly             stretched image).         -   The original image.         -   The seen body mask.         -   The user's mask.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm first considers the difference between the medians         of the red channel and the green channel on the user's skin both         in the original image and in the uniformly stretched image. The         algorithm sets a value to a variable called redSkin according to         these differences:         -   The difference in the new image is higher or equal to 100             and the difference in the original image is less than 100:             redSkin=the difference in the new image times 0.8.         -   The difference in the new image is higher or equal to 80 and             the difference in the original image is less than 80:             redSkin=the difference in the new image times 0.9.         -   The difference in the new image is higher or equal to 70 and             the difference in the original image is less than 70:             redSkin=the difference in the new image times 0.92.         -   The difference in the new image is higher or equal to 60 and             the difference in the original image is less than 60:             redSkin=the difference in the new image times 0.94.         -   The difference in the new image is higher or equal to 50 and             the difference in the original image is less than 50:             redSkin=the difference in the new image times 0.96.         -   The difference in the new image is less than 50: redSkin=0     -   If redSkin is 0 then no more operations are applied to the image         and the final results of the “removal of shadows from users and         improvement of the quality of the image” algorithm is the         uniformly stretched image.     -   If redSkin is more than 0, then the image is transformed from         the RGB color space to the HSV space and the S channel is         decreased until the difference between the red and the green         channels is less than the value of redSkin. The image is         transformed back to the RGB space and returned as the final         result of the “removal of shadows from users and improvement of         the quality of the image” algorithm.

Reference is made to FIG. 19, which is a schematic illustration of a process 1900 of image enhancement, in accordance with the present invention, as described above.

Some embodiments of the present invention may utilize methods and modules for Estimating Clothing Size based on User Measurements and Cloth Properties, by utilizing a Non-Parametric Machine Learning Approach.

The system may utilize an automated algorithm for estimating a user's clothing size. The algorithm estimates the size based on the user's body measurements and the properties of the specific cloth. User measurements include the bust, hips and waist circumference and the user's height. Clothes properties include whether it is a stretchable material and a full size chart. The algorithm uses machine learning tools to learn a non-parametric model based on tens of thousands of past users' acquisitions.

The algorithm has two parts:

-   -   1. Learning phase: learning from past experience a         non-parametric model     -   2. Application phase: recommend the user the cloth size given         the cloth's properties and the user's measurements.

Learning Phase

The present invention may use Machine Learning with a supervised learning approach. The system may utilize labeled examples. Each such example is denoted as a data point. Table 1 define the features that compose a data point.

TABLE 1 features in data point User height in inches Bust circumference in inches Hips circumference in inches Waist circumference in inches Is the cloth stretchable True/False Full size chart Maps body measurements to sizes Size bought by the user One of the sizes from the full size table.

To train the algorithm the system may harvest from the web tens of thousands of such data points. Some of the data points contain errors and need to be cleansed.

In a demonstrative embodiment, a chart or look-up table may be generated and utilized, defining the size of bust, waist and hip per each “size” (e.g., garment size, or body size). For example, body size “2” may correspond to bust size 24, waist size 21, hip size 25; whereas, body size “8” may correspond to bust size 27, waist size 24, and hip size 28.

Cleansing the Data:

The system may encounter three types of erroneous data points:

-   1. Some of the data is missing: for example a user didn't provide     the bust circumference. For this type of errors, the system may drop     the data point (do not take it into account in the learning phase)     because it is not reliable, and may harm the model more than help. -   2. Some of the data is ill-formatted: the system may encounter     mainly two issues:     -   2.1. Some of the data is given in the wrong units. In such case         the system may transform it into the suitable units (e.g., from         cm to inches).     -   2.2. For some users instead of the bust size, the user provide         her bra size. In that case the system may use a mapping of the         cup size to inches according to table 2 and add the band size to         come up with the bust size.

TABLE 2 cup size contribution to circumference to inches. AA A B C D E F G H I J K 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

-   3. The data is non-standardized: this means that each data point is     provided with respect to its own size chart. Actually, every clothes     manufacturer may use its own chart. In order to learn a consistent     model, the system may first transform all the data points to a     single reference size chart.

GetProbabilityTable is the function that maps one size chart to another.

Input:

-   -   Current clothes size chart: denoted CSC     -   Reference clothes size chart: denoted RSC

Output:

-   -   Probability mapping from the current clothes size chart to the         reference's size chart. For example, if the user is ‘2’ on CSC         the output will provide the probability for ‘S’, ‘M’, ‘XL’ which         are the sizes in the current size chart.

Algorithm:

-   -   i. Compute the L_(p) norm (p is a parameter) between         measurements in CSC to those in RSC:

${L_{p}\left( {{SZ}_{RSC}^{j},{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}} \right)} = \sqrt[p]{\sum\left( {{{SZ}_{RSC}^{j}(i)} - {{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}(i)}} \right)^{p}}$

-   -   -   Where SZ_(RCS) ^(j)(i) is the i^(th) feature of the j^(th)             size in RSC and SZ_(CSC) ^(k)(i) is the i^(th) feature of             the k^(th) size in CSC. For example SZ_(RSC) ^(j) might be             ‘Medium’, SZ_(CSC) ^(k) might be ‘2’ and the i^(th) feature             might be the bra size in inches.

    -   ii. Use a Gaussian Kernel to transform the distances to         affinities:

${G\left( {{SZ}_{RSC}^{j},{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}} \right)} = {\exp\left( {- \frac{L_{p}\left( {{SZ}_{RSC}^{j},{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}} \right)}{2\sigma^{2}}} \right)}$

-   -   -   Were σ is a parameter.

    -   iii. Normalize the affinities to a probability:

${P\left( {{SZ}_{RSC}^{j},{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}} \right)} = \frac{G\left( {{SZ}_{{RS}\; C}^{j},{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}} \right)}{\sum_{k}{SZ}_{{CS}\; C}^{k}}$

-   -   -   Where Σ_(k)SZ_(CSC) ^(k) is the sum over all sizes in CSC.

Once the data is cleansed, the system may train the non-parametric model.

Training the Non-Parametric Model:

The system may train, for example, 54 different non-parametric model(s). The reference size chart contains 9 different sizes: ‘xs’, ‘s’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘xl’, ‘1x’, ‘2x’, ‘3x’ and ‘4x’. For each size the system may train two models: one for stretchable and one for non-stretchable clothing. The system may perform this for 3 types of clothing: tops, bottoms and dresses.

TrainModel is the function that performs the training:

Input:

N cleansed data points: specified in table 1. In practice the system may use about 120,000 data points.

Output:

A non-parametric model, that given measurements and clothing properties returns the probability per size.

Algorithm:

-   -   1. dissect the data points according to cloth type: top, bottom         and dress.     -   2. further bisect each group into stretchable vs.         non-stretchable clothes.     -   3. Each data point contributes a count of 1 to the model into a         bin that corresponds to the body measurements, see FIG. 2. For         each clothing type, use a different set of features to identify         the bin:         -   a. Tops: bust, hip and waist circumference         -   b. Bottoms: height and hip and waist circumference         -   c. Dress: height and bust, hip and waist circumference     -   4. Smooth each model with a multidimensional Gaussian kernel:

$\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left( {2\pi} \right)^{k}{k}}}{\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2}}\left( {x - \mu} \right)^{T}{\sum^{- 1}\left( {x - \mu} \right)}} \right)}$

-   -   -   Where μ and Σ are free parameters.

After training, the model is ready for its application phase.

Application Phase:

The goal of the application phase is to use the models to provide the user with a recommended size. In addition, it may provide the user some comments regarding the recommendation. For example, it may recommend the user ‘Medium’ providing that it would be ‘tight on the chest’ or ‘Large’ which is going to be ‘lose on the chest’.

To achieve this, the system may utilize two functions:

-   -   1. Estimate size: applies all the relevant model and come up         with a probability per size for the specific cloth.     -   2. Evaluate comment: provides comments per cloth size.

Estimate Size:

Input:

a data point for a new user, the cloth properties for the relevant cloth

Output:

probability per size according to the clothing's size chart.

Algorithm:

-   -   1. Apply the 9 relevant models on the input data point. The         relevant data point is defined by the clothing type: top, bottom         or dress and by the stretchable attribute.     -   2. This may give 9 probabilities, one per size. These         probabilities relate to the reference model. Next, use         GetProbabilityTable to get a mapping from our reference table to         the clothing's actual table.     -   3. By multiplying the two, get the probability for each size in         the current table, and output these probabilities.

Evaluate Comment:

Input:

-   -   Size probabilities     -   User preference towards tight or lose (optional)

Output:

Comment on each size. Comments include ‘lose’, ‘fit’ or ‘tight’.

Algorithm:

-   -   1. Per size find the most probable measure     -   2. Take the user's measurements and measure the distance for the         most probable measures. Assign ‘fit’ if the distance is bellow a         threshold. If the distance is above threshold, assign ‘lose’ if         the user measures are smaller than the most probable measure and         ‘tight’ other-wise.

Some embodiments may utilize a Product Size Adjustment process or algorithm. This algorithm is simulating the appearance of a garment on a user as a function of the size of the garment and the product size recommendation. The measurements algorithm is calculating the circumferences of the user at different areas on his body, as well as the cup size for women. The size estimation algorithm is using these results to recommend on a product size, and/or to correct or modify a product size that a user had suggested. Then, the product size adjustment algorithm is using the output of these algorithms, as well as the choice of garment size in order to simulate the appearance of the garment on the user.

Algorithm and Functions:

1. Size Check

-   -   The first operation of the algorithm is comparing the choice of         garment size to the product size recommendations. If they are         equal, then the algorithm is dressing the user with the default         garment and pleats. The default garment is the one with the same         size as the size recommendation and it is ready to be used.

2. Vertical Rescaling of the Garment

-   -   This algorithm is rescaling the default lengths of the garment         according to the product size recommendations and the size chart         of the garment. The size chart contains the dimensions of the         garments for each of its possible sizes. If the garment's size         chart does not exist, the algorithm is making use of a default         size chart for the specific type of garment.     -   The algorithm may utilize the following data:         -   The product size recommendation.         -   The choice of garment size.         -   The default garment's image.         -   The garment's control points.         -   The user's control points.         -   The garment's size chart.         -   The default chart size.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is vertically rescaling the default garment         according to the product size recommendation, the choice of         garments size, and the size chart.     -   The control points are rescaled accordingly.

3. Horizontal Rescaling of the Dress

-   -   The horizontal rescaling of the garment is done by transforming         the control points of the garment or the user horizontally.     -   The algorithm may use the following data:         -   The product size recommendation.         -   The choice of garment size.         -   The image of the garment.         -   The garment's control points.         -   The user's control points.         -   The garment's size chart.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   If the garment's size is smaller than the product size         recommendation, then the algorithm is transforming the user's         control points horizontally towards the user's mask. The         translation of the control points depends on the product size         recommendation, the choice of garment size, and the size chart.     -   If the garment's size is larger than the product size         recommendation, then the algorithm is horizontally transforming         each pair of the garment's control points (points on the same         area of the body: elbow, wrist, etc. from both of its sides)         towards each other.

4. Bust Rescaling for Women

-   -   This algorithm is rescaling the bust area of women's garments.     -   The algorithm may use the following data:         -   The user's bust circumference.         -   The user's cup size.         -   The choice of garment size.         -   The image of the garment.         -   The garment's size chart.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   If the choice of garment size is smaller than the product size         recommendation, then the under bust area on the garment becomes         more tight.     -   If the choice of garment size is larger than the product size         recommendation, then the under bust area is more loose.     -   The algorithm is rescaling the color map of the garment at the         bust area to achieve the proper results.

5. Pleats Choice

-   -   This algorithm is choosing the proper pleats for the garment out         of a large data set of pleats images.     -   The algorithm may use the following data:         -   The product size recommendation.         -   The choice of garment size.         -   The image of the garment.         -   The size chart of the garment.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is choosing the proper pleats for the garment         based on the following considerations:         -   The number of vertical pleats is growing as the size of the             garment is getting larger, given that it is larger than the             recommended size of the product. For garments of size that             is smaller than the recommended size of the product, there             are almost no vertical pleats.         -   The vertical pleats are becoming wider as the garment's size             is getting larger, given that it is larger than the             recommended size of the product.         -   The number of horizontal pleats is growing as the garment's             size is getting smaller, given that it is smaller than the             recommended size of the user. Almost no horizontal pleats             exist on a garment that is larger than the recommended size.

6. Pleats Rescaling

-   -   This algorithm is rescaling the chosen pleats according to the         vertical and horizontal rescaling of the garment.     -   The algorithm may use the following data:         -   The pleats image that was chosen by the “pleats choice”             algorithm.         -   The pleats control points.         -   The vertical and horizontal rescaling information.

Description of the Algorithm Operation:

-   -   The algorithm is rescaling the pleats in the same way that it         rescaled the garment.

7. Pleats Integration on the Garment

This algorithm is integrating the pleats on the garment. The algorithm gets as an input the image of the garment and the image of the pleats, both after the processing of the previous algorithms.

The algorithm adds the pleats to the The Applicants have realized that conventional websites or applications or “apps” or search engines, which are requested by a user to find and to display an item (e.g., a shirt that the user considers to purchase), operate in one of two ways: (I) they show the shirt, often together with other shirts, as a stand-alone item that is not worn by any human, thereby making it difficult or impossible for the current user to understand how this shirt would actually look when worn by a human in general, or by himself in particular; or (II) they show the shirt, worn by a human who is not the current user, and is typically a different looking person or model; thereby, again, making it difficult or impossible for the current user to understand how this shirt would look when actually worn by himself or herself, and not by a human model who has different skin color, different body shape, different height, different weight, different dimensions, and/or other different characteristics, relative to the current user.

The Applicants have realized that this creates a gap or barrier or obstacle, that causes many users to avoid purchasing a particular item; since they cannot see an actual appearance of the item on their own body, and thus they hesitate to place the order online. Some embodiments of the present invention may thus provide an improved system and method which enables users to efficiently see and grasp, how a particular item (e.g., garment, artistic garment, accessory, article of clothing, or other type of object) would look or would appear if worn or carried by the particular user; thereby enhancing the user experience and providing to the user artistic inspiration or fashion inspiration based on what the user or other particular users are wearing or are virtually wearing.

The Applicants have also realized that this creates other problems; for example, a user seeing the shirt displayed on a fashion model who is much thinner and taller than the actual user; the user then believes that the shirt would fit her in a similar manner, only to later be disappointed by this purchase; which in turn may cause adverse effects to the vendor, for example, initiation of a Return transaction in which the item is returned to the vendor (often with “free shipping” that the vendor has to pay for), authoring of negative reviews or low scores with regard to the vendor and/or the item, and/or other adverse effects.

The Applicants have realized that it would be beneficial to construct and to operate a new system, which generates search results of items or products, or that shows a single search result or multiple search results, in a particular user-specific context that characterizes the actual current user; rather than displaying one or more images without any context (e.g., just images of shirts, without any human wearer), and rather than displaying one or more images with a foreign context that does not characterize the actual current user (e.g., image of the shirt worn by a fashion model that looks differently from the actual user). Accordingly, the present invention provides a system and a method of generating such search results; as well as generating content that is not necessarily search results or that is not search-related at all, for example, for generating and displaying suggested content or suggested items, or for generating other content (e.g., in a side-by-side view or other suitable format).

The Applicants have realized that it may be beneficial to construct and to operate a system that, when asked to show images of “black leather jacket”, does not merely display 1 or 16 image(s) of a black leather jacket on a hanger; and does not merely display 1 or 12 image(s) of a black leather jacket worn by one or more fashion models; but rather, a system that generates and displays one or more image(s) of a black leather jacket (or multiple, different, such jackets) that is virtually worn by an image of the actual current user; thereby enabling the current user to grasp and to understand how this search result (e.g., one jacket, or 10 jackets) would actually look and would appear if worn by himself or herself. It is noted that for demonstrative purposes, some portions of the discussion herein may relate to a single article of clothing; however, the present invention may be utilized to present multiple garments or multiple items, side-by-side or in a list or a scroll-able format, for example, corresponding to a particular person (e.g., identified by his name or username or screen-name) and further corresponding to a “virtual closet” or “virtual wardrobe” of such user or person.

In some embodiments, for example, the current user may capture an image of herself (e.g., “selfie” image), or may ask a friend to assist in capturing her image; or may otherwise produce a photo of herself (e.g., by photographing herself in a mirror; by scanning a ready-made photograph of herself; by uploading a photo of herself). The image of the current user may be uploaded or otherwise transmitted to a remote server, for example, of an online vendor, or a search engine, or a social network website, or the like.

At the server, an image analysis unit may perform image analysis of the uploaded photograph of the user. For example, a face/head extractor unit may extract an isolate portion of the image that corresponds to the face or the head of the user; a Body Organ extractor unit may extract and isolate one or more portions of the user that are also indicative of the user (e.g., right hand, left hand, neck area, upper chest area; possibly knee area and leg area, for utilization with skirts and dresses and short pants).

Additionally, a dimensions extractor unit may calculate or may estimate the dimensions of the user, based on image analysis and optionally using machine learning and computer vision processes. For example, a ratio between the head of the user and the entire body height, may be used to estimate the height of the user; which in turn may also be used in order to estimate the width (east to west) of the user.

Optionally, a User Features extractor unit may operate to extract other unique characteristics of the user; for example, to analyze the image of the user and to determine that the user has a unique tattoo on her left arm, or a unique birthmark on her neck, or the like.

The server may then perform the requested search, and may internally store the relevant search results to be displayed; such as, a single particular article of clothing (e.g., a single shirt), or multiple such article of clothing (e.g., multiple shirts). However, instead of merely displaying the search results(s) that are obtained from a general database or catalog of items or products, the system may proceed to modify each search result, prior to displaying it to the current user, wherein the modification causes the product to be shown in a user-specific context that is specific to the actual current user.

In a first demonstrative example, user Adam captures a photograph of himself, and uploads it to the server of the search engine or of an online retailer. Later, user Adam searches for “leather jacket 3794” (for example, the number “3794” being a SKU number of a product; or alternatively, by using a model number of a product, or other product identifier), which is a particular type or model of a leather jacket that Adam is considering to purchase. The server fetches from a database, the generic or general-purpose data about that item: a general “stock image” of the jacket, the price, the available sizes, and other data. Then, an image augmentation/modification unit, modifies the stock image of the product; for example, by adding the image-portions of head and neck of the user Adam over the top area of the leather jacket, and by adding image-potions of Adam's hands at the ends of the sleeves of the jacket; thereby generating a user-tailored image that depicts the leather jacket, virtually dressed on the image of the user Adam, and/or by virtual re-construction of an image that emulates or simulates how the user would appear if the user wears or carries that particular item or garment based on the user's own image and based on one or more images of the product or garment; and ensuring that the left-hand of Adam shows his unique tattoo or birthmark that was detected by image analysis of his uploaded photograph. Then, instead of showing to user Adam the Product Page with the “stock photo” of the jacket on a hanger or on a shelf, the server shows or serves the modified image of this particular leather jacket as modified to appear to be worn by user Adam, based on his analyzed user image. Accordingly, Adam can see the product page, with the particular product being virtually dressed on an image of himself, thereby giving to Adam a much better grasping of how this particular jacket would appear on himself in real life, and facilitating his decision whether or not to purchase this item.

In a second demonstrative example, user Bob is not comfortable with capturing and uploading his own photograph to the server; or, user Bob utilizes an electronic device that is not able to capture a photograph (e.g., a desktop computer that lacks a camera). In such case, user Bob may request from the server to show him a set of pre-defined images of fashion models based on one or more user-selected parameters, for example, skin color, height, weight (or width), hair color, gender, body features (e.g., birthmark, tattoo), hair style, or the like. For example, user Bob may indicate to the server (or to a local “app” or application) that he selects a dark-skin male image having a beard, a moustache, and long brown hair, and being 6 feet tall; whereas user Carla may indicate that she selects a white-skin female image having short blond hair and being 5 feet tall. Then, when user Bob requests from a search engine (or, from an online retailer or an online catalog or an online vendor) to show search results for the query “black leather jacket”, the search results include various types of such jackets, that are virtually dressed on the selected image that Bob defined (when user Bob performs the search) or that are virtually dressed on the selected image that Carla defined (if Carla performs the search). Accordingly, each one of these users, sees the search results that comprise the relevant items (e.g., jacket) that are virtually dressed on an image of a fashion model (or other person, other than the user himself/herself) based on pre-defined user-specific features that were defined; thereby allowing the user (Bob or Carla) to better grasp and understand how the desired item (black leather jacket) would appear or would look on a body type of their choice.

In a third demonstrative example, user David captures his own image, and uploads it to a server of an online retailer (e.g., “Gap.com”). Then, when user David searches for “washwell slim fit jeans”, or for product number (or SKU number) “321515”, instead of receiving a search result with a generic photo of jeans pants, on a shelf or on a hanger or worn by a random fashion model who does not resemble the user David, the system generates and serves or displays an image showing David virtually dressed with the desired jeans pants.

The system may thus generate, compose, serve and/or display a set of graphical search results or query results, one next to the other or one after the other (e.g., allowing a user to scroll or swipe among them), each image being an Augmented Reality (AR) item in which an image of the actual user that performs the search, or alternatively, an image of a human that has characteristics that are defined by the searching user (e.g., gender, height, weight, hair color, hair style, body features, etc.), are virtually dressed by the item (e.g., if the item is an article of clothing), or such that the human user (or its selected substitute image) is shown in a modified context based on the search results.

It is clarified that for demonstrative purposes, some portions of the discussion herein may relate to a user uploading a photograph of himself, for the purpose of enabling the system to generate contextual graphical search results of that user (or its defined substitute) virtually dressed with selected clothing article(s). However, the system may be used with a variety of other contexts and items; such as, for automatically replacing a background or at least apportion of a background of an image in order to assist the user to grasp and to see how a particular object would look or would appear if placed in a particular location or context (e.g., room, living room, office, yard); for example, a user may capture or upload a photograph of his living room, may perform a search for a “red carpet”, and the system may then show him various types of red carpets that are virtually placed into or onto the particular, imaged, living room of the actual user; thereby enabling the user to more easily grasp how each such “red carpet” search result would actually appear in his own, particular, living room Similar contextual modification may be performed, for example, if the user searches for a furniture (e.g., “brown chair”), an art piece (e.g., “framed picture of a bird”), and/or other suitable items which may be augments, modified and/or rendered into or onto or within or in proximity to a user-defined context (e.g., an image of the user himself; an image of a fashion model that is selected by the user; an image of a substitute human that the user selects from a pool of options, or that the user defines by selecting particular characteristics; an image of another article; an image of a room or a house or other spatial location or zone; or the like).

Similarly, the system of the present invention may enable a user to check how an accessory (e.g., bracelet, necklace, earrings, glasses, or the like) would appear in the context of his own image; for example, the user uploads a photograph of his upper body or full body, and searches for the query “green necklace”, causing the system to display multiple search results of multiple, different, green necklaces, each one being virtually dressed onto or into the image of the particular user that performs the search. It is noted that some embodiments may perform virtual dressing of a user with multiple, different, garments or clothes; thereby enabling the user Becky to see, for example, how she would appear (based on her own, uploaded, image) if she wears (i) a particular red skirt, and (ii) a particular black jacket, and (iii) a particular green necklace.

Similarly, the system of the present invention may enable a user to check how a particular fashion item (e.g., cosmetic product; lipstick; nail polish; makeup shade; etc.) would appear in the context of her own image; for example, the user uploads a photograph of her upper body or full body, and searches for the query “Dark Red Nail Polish”, causing the system to display multiple search results of multiple, different, instances of the user's own picture in which various types of dark red nail polish is added to her fingernails.

The system may automatically perform calibration, normalization and/or resizing of image-based search results, in order to enable the user to better grasp how various items that are all search results of a single search query, would appear in a particular AR context. For example, the website of “Gap.com” may include a “black leather jacket” that is represented as a jacket image at a resolution of 600×500 pixels; whereas the website of “OldNavy.com” may include a “black leather jacket” that is represented as a jacket image at a resolution of 640×620 pixels. The system may automatically resize each one of the image search results, for example, to a single, same, size or resolution (e.g., resizing each one of them to be exactly 480×480 pixels); and then the system may modify each one of the already-resized images, to be “virtually dressed” on the image of the actual user Adam, or on the image of a fashion model that user Adam defined (e.g., by choosing the model's gender, height, hair color, hair style, or the like). The multiple AR contextually-tailored images of the two jackets, may be displayed side-by-side for comparison, or sequentially (e.g., allowing the user to swipe or scroll among the search results), all images resized to the same of essentially similar dimensions, enabling the user to compare how each “black leather jacket” would appear on his own body; even though the original, server-side images had resided on different computer servers, which are owned and/or operated by different entities, and are provided initially in different resolutions or image-sizes or image-dimensions. It is noted that the resizing operation is only a non-limiting example of modification operations that may be performed on image search results; and other operations may be performed, for example, shrinking, enlarging, zooming in, zooming out, rotating, flipping, mirroring, replacing background, modifying background, framing, blurring, sharpening, cropping, rotating along one or more axis lines, or the like, in order to ensure that the resulting image is indeed an Augmented Reality (AR) modified image that is as realistic as possible relative to the actual user and/or her actual surroundings.

It is noted that each search result or product page, may further comprise other User Interface (UI) elements to enable the user to proceed with performing other operations; for example, a link or hyperlink or button enabling the user to browse to the product page (e.g., from a list of image-based search results), and/or enabling the user to add a particular product (whose image was contextually-modified) into a virtual shopping cart of the user, and/or enabling the user to initiate or to perform a purchase transaction regarding the depicted product, or the like.

For demonstrative purposes, some portions of the discussion herein may relate to modifying or generating a single two-dimensional image (e.g., of a leather jacket) that is modified based on a user-specific context (e.g., the leather jacket being virtually dressed on an image of user Bob). However, the system of the present invention may similarly generate, modify, augment and/or serve other suitable formats of search results, for example: a set or batch or group of multiple contextually-modified images of the product (e.g., front side of the leather jacket virtually dressed on user Bob; right side of the leather jacket virtually dressed on user Bob; left side of the leather jacket virtually dressed on user Bob); a video clip or animation in which the item is modified based on the context (e.g., a video clip or animation that shows the leather jacket being virtually dressed on user Adam), optionally allowing to view 360 degrees around the product, or to see zoomed-in or zoomed-out features, depth features, shading features, or the like); a three-dimensional model that may be generated, showing the product (e.g., black leather jacket) being virtually dressed on a three-dimensional model of user Bob, enabling the user to rotate or spin the three-dimensional model on his screen; and/or other suitable formats.

In some embodiments, the system may operate in accordance with the following method. A web-crawler or other mechanism may collect data from online sources (e.g., online vendors, online retailers, search engines), and may collect data and meta-data about products (e.g., product name, product SKU number, product price, direct link to product page at the online vendor, generic image(s) of the product, tags or tagging information that is associated with the product, or the like). The collected data is stored in a database or other repository; and a calibration engine analyzes all the images, and optionally re-sizes some or all of the images in order to ensure that all the products in the same category (e.g., “summer dress”, or “leather jacket”) are resized or converted to a single, common, size or resolution (e.g., 640×640 pixels). A morphologic analysis engine may further analyze the collected data and meta-data, and a tagging engine may extract and/or create tags for each product image (e.g., based on original tags that were obtained from the vendor's web-page; or based on computer vision algorithm that determines that the product includes a Dress or a Jacket). The user uploads her photograph, which is analyzed by an analysis engine that detects body parts (e.g., head, arms, hands, legs, knees, neck), and/or detects other body features (e.g., hair color, hair style, tattoo, birthmark, skin color) or accessories that the user already wears (e.g., necklace, bracelet), and optionally detects or extracts or maintains the background of the user's image in order to maintain the unique background for AR purposes (e.g., user Carla is standing next to her motorcycle in her uploaded image; thus the nearby motorcycle and the street environment is extracted and is maintained for AR rendering of virtually-dressed items that Carla will later browse). Then, when the user enters a search query (e.g., “summer dress”), the search results are obtained from the database via the query; and each image of each search result is modified in a manner that virtually dresses the product on the image of Carla, within the particular background that was included in the original image uploaded by Carla.

In some embodiments, a body dimensions analysis engine may optionally analyze the originally-uploaded image of Carla; and may determine that she is particularly tall, or has a particular set of dimensions (e.g., very thin, or very fat, or very short, or very tall). Optionally, the search engine and/or the online retailer server, or a third party server, may utilize the estimated ratio or dimensions in order to filter and/or discard search results, or in order to at least add a warning notification regarding some search result items, if they do not match the determined ratios or dimensions. For example, the image of user Jane may indicate that she is very tall and fat or wide; and this may cause the search engine or the retailer server to filter-out or to discard or to hide a search result for “summer dress” that is available only in size number “2”, as most-probably not fitting such body type; or alternatively, to display that product as a valid search result, but to also add a notification or warning that “This item is only available in size 2, please check that this product is suitable for you”.

It is noted that such filters or inclusion/exclusion constraints may be generated to various other (non-clothes) types of products; for example, a user may upload a photograph of his living room, in order to have the living room “virtually dressed” with various Carpets that are offered for sale; the system may analyze the uploaded image of the living room, for example, based on detection of a standardly-size item (e.g., by recognizing that there is a standard Electric Socket on the wall and thus knowing its standard size; by recognizing that there is a Coca Cola bottle of 1.5 liters on the shelf and thus knowing its standard size), and the system may thus further estimate what is the available floor size that can be carpeted (e.g., maximum available floor of 2×3 meters). Once the size is deduced or determined based on computer vision, the system may filter-in or may keep only search results that adhere to such size constraints; or the system may filter-out and may exclude search results of greater carpets, or may display them with a “warning notification” that they may be too large for the particular living room being considered.

Furthermore, a dimensions/ratios estimation unit may be utilized in order to perform data mining and data aggregation, and to provide beneficial information to vendors and retailers, or to be used as filter-out or filter-in search conditions or constraints, or inclusion conditions or exclusion conditions. For example, the system may accumulate data, indicating that 70 percent of female users, that are determined to be tall and thin (based on computer vision analysis of their uploaded photographs), are searching for “flower summer dress”; thereby indicating to a particular retailer that such product has demand for this type of body ratio or body characteristics. It is noted that this insight may not be readily available to the retailer without the system of the present invention; since the retailer may be relying on sales data of actual sales, which may reflect what shoppers has actually purchased, but do not necessarily reflect which items potential shoppers have searched for and did not purchase (e.g., due to lack of inventory). The analyzed data may be used for user clustering, in order to identify a group of users that have a common set of body parameters (e.g., height), and how searched or browsed for a particular item (e.g., summer dress). The system may further generate trends forecast, based on such search patterns of multiple users.

In some embodiments, two different users that perform the same search query, at the same search engine or online retailer, may receive different search results, due to at least one or more of the following parameters: (a) they may receive the “same” list of leather jackets when they search for “black leather jacket” at “Gap.com”, but the search results that user Adam gets are virtually dressed on Adam's image, whereas the search results that user Bob gets are the same leather jackets but they are virtually dressed on Bob's image; and/or (b) based on image analysis of the uploaded photograph of user Carla, the system may determine that the “mini skinny summer dress” should be filtered-out and excluded from the search results displayed for user Carla, but should be included in the search results displayed for user Jane (based on the analysis of user Jane's own image); and/or (c) based on other parameters, such as, user-specific purchase history or browsing history, user-specific data obtained from social media account or from user-defined settings or preferences, or the like).

Reference is made to FIG. 20, which is a schematic illustration of enhanced search results 2000 that are generated by the system of the present invention. For example, user Carla has uploaded her own photograph, in which there is shown her light-brown skin color, her arms and legs, her “spaghetti style” white shoes, and her smiling face with her hair style (curly, brushed to the left side of Carla and to the right side of an observer). Carla then utilizes a search engine, or a retailer's website or “app” or application, in order to search for a query such as “Summer Dress”. Instead of receiving multiple search results of generic images of summer dresses shown on a hanger or shown on a shelf or shown on a third person (e.g., a fashion model), the system generates, serves and/or displays to Carla her user-specific, virtually tailored, search results; for example, the five images shown.

For example, from left to right, a first search result is an image of a short flower-themed summer dress, shown virtually dressed on Carla's body based on her own image that she uploaded, and clearly showing Carla's own face, as well as her arms, her legs, and her unique “spaghetti style” white shoes; the second search result shows a similar image of another dress with a front-side zipper, virtually dressed on the image of Carla; the fourth search result shows a long summer dress or gown, virtually dressed on the image of Carla, but this time hiding all of Carla's right leg and hiding most of Carla's right leg, since this is an elongated dress that reaches the ground; and so forth, thereby providing to the user Carla a real-life understanding and grasping of how the various different summer dresses, will actually appear if worn by her. Optionally, the system may operate to maintain in the generated image, the entire background or portions of the background of the image that Carla uploaded, in order to make the search results even more personalized to her and to make her purchase decision more efficient. For example, the photograph that Carla uploaded includes Carla standing next to her motorcycle; and accordingly, the system identifies that in addition to Carla, the uploaded image contains particular background features that should be maintained, thereby generating the five search results of the five summer dresses to be virtually dressed on the image of Carla standing next to her same motorcycle, or with the same image background of the original uploaded photo; thereby producing a realistic, real-life image of the product, virtually dressed by the actual user, and virtually located in the particular environment or spatial location that appeared in the originally-uploaded image of the actual user.

Each one of the search results, is also a click-able link that redirects the user to a particular product page or particular vendor web-site, in which the shown product can be purchased online. Additionally or alternatively, each search result may be accompanied by UI elements enabling immediate purchase of the product (e.g., a button of “click here to add to cart and checkout through Amazon”), thereby shortening the time or the steps required for completing the purchase transaction. Optionally, if the search results are generated by a third-party server that is not controlled by the online retailer, the third-party server may perform steps to ensure that the third-party server operator receives a commission or an affiliate fee or referral fee or other consideration, for facilitating the purchase transaction.

Reference is made to FIG. 21, which is a schematic illustration of other enhanced search results 2100 that are generated by the system of the present invention. Augmented Reality (AR) search results, may be displayed side-by-side, and/or may be displayed in a mobile-friendly or touchscreen-friendly presentation format, in which one or more images are shown at a time, and other images are displayed only upon a swipe or a scroll command is performed manually by the user, or are shown at pre-defined time intervals (e.g., autonomously scrolling the search results every two seconds, in an automatic slide-show mode).

Reference is made to FIG. 22, which is a schematic illustration of other enhanced search results 2200 that are generated by the system of the present invention. For example, a particular user Becky is shown, based on her own real-life image, being virtually dressed by multiple “black dress” products from multiple different retailers or vendors; all of them shown side-by-side or in a scroll-able interface, that allows the user Becky to see how she would appear, herself, if she wears these various types of “black dress” items; thereby enabling her to choose more efficiently the particular dress or dresses that appear to her more pleasing to her taste.

In some embodiments, a Background Modification module may handle the extraction, modification and/or replacement of a background or of a context on which the product is shown, even though the product is virtually-dressed or virtually-placed on the same actual user. For example, as shown in the following demonstrative drawing, user Jane has uploaded her image; and product search results are shown for Four different “summer dresses” based on her “summer dress” search query, each one of the four search results shows the relevant summer dress being virtually dressed on the body of Jane based on her originally-uploaded image. Optionally, user Jane may request to see the virtually-dressed image of herself, on varying backgrounds, such as, outdoor next her office (first image from the left), in her kitchen (second image), in her garden (third image), and in her office (fourth image). The system may replace of modify the background of each search result, based on a generic image of such place (e.g., generic flower garden, generic office space, generic kitchen, or the like); or, the system may utilize actual, real-life backgrounds that were extracted from one or more photographs that the particular user Jane has uploaded; thereby enabling the user to see and to grasp, not only how each item will appear when worn on her own body, but also how it would appear when she wears it in various spatial locations or various surroundings.

In some embodiments, the system may autonomously perform background modification or background replacement, based on morphologic and/or contextual analysis, based on Natural Language Processing (NPL), based on tagging or meta-data, or the like; even if the user did not request to change backgrounds, and/or even if the user did not supply alternate backgrounds, did not upload them, or did not select them from a set of backgrounds. For example, the system may detect that user Carla is searching for “summer dress”; and that the first search result, on “Gap.com”, has a textual description (or a user's review) of “an excellent summer dress to wear for work in your office”, and thus may automatically and autonomously generate the virtually-dressed image of Carla with that particular dress, shown on the background of an office space; whereas, the system may detect that the second search result, on “OldNavy.com”, has a textual description of “Pretty summer dress, perfect for the beach”, or is also tagged with the tag of “beach dress”, and may thus generated the second search result to show Carla virtually-dressed with the second dress but shown on the background of the beach.

Reference is made to FIG. 23, which is a schematic illustration of enhanced search results 2300 that are generated by the system of the present invention. It demonstrates how the system enables to generate a user-tailored or user-personalized catalog of products, each one of them depicted as virtually-dressed on: (a) the actual user herself, based on her uploaded image; or, (b) a particular other person (e.g., a celebrity, a singer, a fashion model, a television figure) that the user selects from a pre-defined set of images of such other persons, or that the user uploads or otherwise provides to the system (e.g., via a link or pointer to an image of that celebrity or model or third party).

For example, the first row shows three particular search results of “summer dress”, each one of those three dresses being virtually-dressed on the image of the actual user Carla herself. Alternatively, the second row shows the same list of search results, but each dress is depicted virtually-dressed on an image of a famous singer that the user Carla selected from a list of persons. Alternatively, the third row shows the same list of search results, but each dress is depicted virtually-dressed on an image of Jane who is Carla's sister, since Carla plans to purchase a summer dress for her sister, and based on an image of Jane that sister Carla has uploaded to the system. The system thus enables a vendor or retailer, to generate in real-time a personalized catalog that is user-specific tailored to a particular user, based on her particular appearance and/or preferences; while relying on the already-existing database of generic images of products, and by utilizing a single image of the user herself, or a single image of a third-person that the user selected or uploaded.

The system may thus enable a user to switch an entire catalog of products, or an entire set of search results, or a particular item or items, among various “view types”; for example, a “Myself/Me” view, in which each of the products is virtually placed on the image of the actual user himself; a “Like Me” view, in which each product is virtually placed on an image that the user selects as being generally-similar to his own body type; a “Celebrity” view, in which each product is virtually placed on a user-selected image of a celebrity of his choice; a “Different User” view, in which each product is virtually placed on an image of another person (e.g., sister of the actual user, who is shopping for a birthday dress for her); or other suitable presentation formats.

As discussed, the system may further modify, replace, or otherwise augment or change the background of each such image, in order to further personalize the catalog to each user, based on user-specific data (e.g., browsing history, shopping history) and/or based on contextual analysis, image analysis, tagging analysis, NLP analysis, or the like (e.g., showing the “beach summer dress” on a background of a beach, while showing the “workplace summer dress” on a background of an office).

Reference is made to FIG. 24, which is a schematic illustration of an enhanced product page 2400 that is generated by the system of the present invention. A product page or a web-page may be dynamically generated or is modified in a manner that entices a user to upload her own photograph in order to view user-specific depictions of the product. For example, a product page for a particular summer dress, is generated to show, instead of one single generic summer dress, four depictions of that particular dress being virtually-worn on four different female users of different types (e.g., different skin colors, different heights, different hair styles); and a notification or UI element invites the current user to upload her own photo in order to, similarly, see her own image being virtually-dressed with that particular dress or product. Reference is made to FIG. 25, which is a schematic illustration of enhanced user-specific Product Page 2500 that are generated by the system of the present invention; for example, a user-specific Product Page at a retailer website (or, on a retailer shopping “app” or application), in which the user-searched product (e.g., summer dress) is shown to the user Carla as being virtually-dressed on her own, actual, image; and optionally, on the actual background that appeared in the originally-uploaded background from her original image, or on a replacement background based on her choice (or based on automatic background replacement via analysis): The other UI elements may continue to operate, but may operate on the AR modified image; for example, the buttons that allow the user to change the color of the dress from “Red” to “Black”, cause the virtually-dressed image of Carla to be dynamically modified such that the virtually-dressed product would change its color within it, while keeping Carla herself (and her background) as user-specific contexts for the product.

Reference is made to FIG. 26, which is a schematic illustration of an interface 2600 generated by the system of the present invention. For example, a website or an “app” or application of a vendor or a retailer may ask the user to “choose your model” from a pre-defined group of images which depict different body types (e.g., tall and short; thin and fat; dark skin and light skin; long hair and short hair; etc.), and/or invite the user to “become a model” by uploading the user's own photograph and/or by capturing now the user's own photograph (e.g., via a web-cam of a laptop computer, or via a front-side camera of a smartphone or tablet, or the like):

Reference is made to FIG. 27, which is a schematic illustration of an interface 2700 generated by the system of the present invention. For example, once the user selects the model of her choice, or alternatively once the user captures or uploads her own photograph, a catalog of products (e.g., summer dresses in the example shown) is generated such that each product is virtually dressed on the particular model that the user selected, or on the particular body of the user herself if she requested:

Reference is made to FIG. 28, which is a schematic illustration of a user-specific Search Results page 2800 generated by the system of the present invention; for example, a user-specific Search Results page at a retailer website (or, on a retailer shopping “app” or application), or a “product category page” at such retailer; in which multiple products (e.g., summer dresses) are shown to the user Carla as being virtually-dressed on her own, actual, image; and optionally, on the actual background that appeared in the originally-uploaded background from her original image, or on a replacement background based on her choice (or based on automatic background replacement); thereby enabling the user to grasp how each one of these items would appear on her own body.

Reference is made to FIG. 29, which is a schematic illustration of a user-specific recommendations page 2900 generated by the system of the present invention. The system of the present invention may further be able to generate user-specific recommendations, with regard to which size of a particular garment or clothing-article is estimated by the system to be the most suitable or the most appropriate or the most conveniently-fitting for the particular user; and/or to generate virtual dressing images, as well as a three-dimensional mannequin or avatar, that resembles the user's body structure and that demonstrates how each size would fit on that particular user.

The system of the present invention may generate and display smarter, more efficient, more useful, search results that depict each product (or search result) in the particular, relevant, context that is virtually-placed near or around or behind or on top of the “generic” product image, via a computer vision algorithm that performs such AR modifications.

The system may further sort the search results based on one or more criteria, for example, conversion rate of each product or each retailer; popularity of each product, browsing popularity, actual purchasing popularity; reputation of the seller or vendor; how high or how low the particular product appears in ordered search results of a third-party server or database (e.g., on Amazon, on Ebay, on Google); based on user-specific browsing history and/or shopping history (e.g., detecting that user Adam typically purchased items in the price range of 10 to 30 dollars, and therefore placing search results in this price-range prior to search results that are more expensive); or the like.

The system may utilize a tagging module able to generate tags based on contextual analysis, morphologic analysis, NLP analysis of textual description and/or user reviews and/or user comments and/or product description, image analysis and computer vision (e.g., adding a tag of “heart” to a shirt that has a heart-shaped embroidery on it), based on similarity of the product image to other products and/or to products that were previously indexed or analyzed, or the like.

The system may further order search results in a user-specific manner, taking into account user preferences, user settings, user profile, user questionnaire, user body type or ratio or dimensions, current trends or shopping trends or fashion trends (e.g., ranking higher the products that match a current shopping trend), current weather or season (e g, ranking higher Summer Dresses, if the user searches for “dress” in the United States in July), geographic location, or the like.

Optionally, the system may enable the user to provide feedback, such as, indicating that a first virtual-dressing of a first product on himself appears very realistic, and that a second virtual-dressing of a second product on himself appears non-realistic to him; thereby enabling the system to be self-learning, self-improving, and self-correcting over time.

Optionally, an entire catalog of products of a retailer, may be modeled or indexed by using a suitable training set; and the entire catalog may be tailored or personalized to be virtually-dressed on various users based on their particular images.

Reference is made to FIG. 30, which is a schematic illustration of a search engine interface 3000 generated and operated by the system of the present invention. The system may include a search engine, or an extension or modification to search engine, in which the system asks the user “what would you like to wear/to purchase today?”; the user enters a search query (e.g., “summer dress”, or “red vase”); the system performs a search of one or more sources (e.g., online retailer(s) that are relevant to the search query), obtains data and meta-data and generic images of each product, and then generates an Augmented Reality (AR) modified image for each such search result, for example, depicting each relevant clothing article being virtually dressed on the image of the user himself, or depicting each red vase product being placed in the particular living room that the user herself had photographed and uploaded to the system; thereby enabling the system to generate a user-tailored, AR-modified, context-based search results that are tailored for each user.

Reference is made to FIG. 31, which is a schematic illustration of automatically-generated editorial content 3100 in accordance with the present invention. The system may be used for automated generating of user-tailored editorial content, articles, lists, recommendations, stories, presentations, commercials, and/or other content containers or content structure. In a demonstrative example, an online magazine or an online fashion retailer may utilize the system to generate a story or an article titled “17 Cool Summer Looks that You Should Try This Summer”; and instead of showing in that story merely 17 “generic” photos of summer dresses by themselves, or 17 such dresses that are modeled by one particular model or by multiple models, the system may generate a user-tailored article in which all the 17 summer dresses are shown as being virtually dressed on the body of the particular user who is browsing or is otherwise consuming the content, based on the user's own, previously-captured or previously-uploaded photo.

Reference is made to FIG. 32, which is a schematic illustration of a system 5000, in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention. System 5000 may comprise one or more, or some, or all, of the units or modules described herein, denoted with reference numerals 5001 through 5017.

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a user-image obtaining module 5001, to obtain a user-image of a user of an electronic device (e.g., from a captured selfie, or from an uploaded image, or from a link provided by the user); an image-mask generator 5002, to generate a user-mask image that corresponds to said user-image processed to exclude background image-data of said user-image (e.g., by utilizing a computer vision algorithm or an image recognition process that recognizes non-user or non-human background portions of an image and removes them or fills them with null values); a product-mask generator 5003, to receive a product-image of a particular product, and to generate from said image a product-mask image that corresponds to said product image processed to exclude background image-data of said product-image (e.g., by utilizing a computer vision algorithm or an image recognition process that recognizes non-product background portions of an image and removes them or fills them with null values); and a user-and-product combination-image generator 5004 (or a suitable Image Fusion unit), to receive said product-mask image and said user-mask image, and to generate from them a combined user-and-product image that depicts said user engaging with said product (e.g., by utilizing an image fusion algorithm that super-imposes the product-mask image over the user-mask-image, or vice versa; and/or by performing image resizing operations to ensure that the dimensions of the product-mask image match the corresponding dimensions of the user-mask image, or vice versa).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a search-result tailoring unit 5005, to receive a plurality of search results in response to a user query that searches for a product, and to modify each one of said search result by replacing each one of said search results with a combination image that depicts said user engaging with said product. For example, an image-based search engine may operate, to obtain image-based search results that correspond to the query “red shirt”; then, to produce a product-mask image of each such red shirt that was part of the search results; then, to fuse the product-mask image of each red shirt, with the user-mask image of the particular user that performed that search, thereby generating a set of image-based search results that are tailored to the specific user that performed the search query.

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a clothes-and-user tailoring unit 5006, to receive a user-image of said user (e.g., from a captured selfie, or from a hyperlink, or from an uploaded file); to receive a user-query for a clothing article (e.g., the user enters a search query of “little black dress”); to generate a plurality of image-based search results in response to said user-query, wherein each image-based search result corresponds to a different instance of said clothing article (e.g., to find on the Internet a set of search results that have images of such little black dresses that are offered for sale by vendors, and to obtain or download the images of such dresses); to modify each image-based search result into a combined image that depicts a combination of said user wearing said instance of the clothing article (e.g., by fusing the processed image of the user, with a processed version of the dress image); to present to said user a set of image-based search results, wherein each image-based search result comprises a combined image that depicts the combination of said user wearing said instance of the clothing article (e.g., via an interface or an output panel that presents such multiple image-based search results that are tailored to show the actual user in each search result).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a clothes-and-user tailoring unit 5006, to receive from a first user, a user-image of a second, different, user (e.g., user Adam uploads or captures a photo of user Bob); to receive from said first user (user Adam), a user-query for a clothing article (e.g., green pants); to generate a plurality of image-based search results in response to said user-query, wherein each image-based search result corresponds to a different instance of said clothing article (e.g., by retrieving from the Internet multiple search results for “green pants” that are offered for sale by online retailers); to modify each image-based search result into a combined image that depicts a combination of said second user (user Bob) wearing said instance of the clothing article (e.g., by fusing together a processed image of Bob, with a processed version of each image of green pants); to present to said first user (user Adam) a set of image-based search results, wherein each image-based search result comprises the combined image that depicts the combination of said second user (user Bob) wearing said instance of the clothing article (e.g., the green pants).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a background replacement module 5007, to receive from said user a selection of a particular product (e.g., the user searches for a Blue Scarf and then selects one particular blue scarf from various search results); to receive from said user the user-image of said user (e.g., a selfie image, an uploaded image, a hyperlink to an image of the user); to generate and to present to said user, a set of different images, each image depicting said user engaging with said particular product but on a different image-background (e.g., using an image processing unit, which takes the image of the user and cleans out all background components by utilizing image recognition process, and then fuses the user's clean image with a processed version of the Blue Scarf image that was selected by the user, and then modifying or replacing the background portions of the fused image, multiple times, with multiple different types of background content).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise an image perspective correction unit 5008, to receive said user-image which depicts said user in a non-frontal perspective (e.g., the image showing the user at an angle of 20 degrees perspective relative to a straight frontal perspective); to generate from said user-image a modified user-image which depicts said user in a frontal perspective (e.g., by using an image processing module that virtually rotates the perspective, by estimating how the user would appear to look if the point-of-view is rotated; for example, by making the user's body wider than depicted in the original image); to generate a user-and-product combination image that depicts said user engaging with a particular product in a frontal perspective (e.g., by fusing the processed image of the user, with a processed version of a product image, thereby generating the fused image of the user with the product, at a full frontal perspective).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a realistic wrinkles generator 5009, to receive an image of a clothing article (e.g., an image of a yellow shirt, in response to a user selection of a yellow shirt from an online catalog or from a set of search results); to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user (e.g., by fusing together, a processed version of that product image, with a processed or improved version of the user's image or with a mask/template image of the user, for example excluding the background portions of the user's image and maintaining the human body of the user in that image); and to modify the combined image to further comprise images of wrinkles that are determined by taking into account at least one of: image perspective, gravity effect, product dimensions (e.g., by a wrinkles generation module that generates realistically-looking wrinkles portions; not by inserting the same or similar wrinkle lines or wrinkle squares, but rather, by utilizing a computer vision process that determines one or more particular locations in the shirt that should be wrinkled based on gravitational effect and/or based on illumination and shading and/or based on the body dimensions of the user, and selectively adds a depiction of non-identical wrinkle lines or wrinkle areas to the image of the clothing article).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a gravitational effect generator 5010, to receive an image of a clothing article (e.g., based on a user selection of a particular product from an online catalog or from search results); to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user (e.g., by fusing together a processed version of the user image, with a processed version of the product image); and to modify the combined image to reflect an effect of gravitational force a particular portion of said clothing article (e.g., to determine whether a sleeve of a shirt has a narrow tube-like structure and therefore is not affected or is less affected by gravity, or in contrast, whether the sleeve of the shirt has a cone-like structure and therefore its lower portion is more affected by gravity and should be modified in the processed image to be stretched downwardly to emulate gravitational pull of the sleeve).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a user-body image modifier 5011, to receive an image of the user in which at least one of the user's arms or hands is not positioned generally towards the ground (e.g., by using a computer vision process that recognizes body parts, and/or that detects that a user's arm is not a straight line, and/or that detects that a user's hand or palm is resting on the user's waist in the image); to modify said image of the user into a modified image in which both user arms and user hands are positioned generally towards the ground (e.g., using an image processing module that moves or removes portions of the human body depictions in the image, from a first location (e.g., resting on the waist) to a second location (e.g., hanging vertically parallel to the body), or by otherwise removing a depiction of a body part from the image (e.g., removing the original arm and hand depictions from the image) and inserting a replacement depiction of that body part into the image at a nearby by different location (e.g., adding an arm portion into the user image, at a location descending from the user's shoulder downwardly towards the ground and ending at a level of the user's waist); and to generate a combined user-and-product image that depicts that user, as modified in said modified image, wearing said particular product (e.g., by fusing together the processed version of the image of the user, with a processed or enhanced version of the clothing article or product).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a clothing-article size estimator 5012, to receive an image of said user (e.g., a captured selfie, or an uploaded image, or a link to a stored image); to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image (e.g., by using a computer vision unit that recognizes or detects or identifies particular body parts or body regions); and to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user (e.g., to calculate the length and/or width in pixels of each recognized body part, such as shoulders, bust, waist, chest, leg, or the like, and to determine a body size based on the ratio of such dimensions; and/or by utilizing a computer vision algorithm that identifies in the user's image an item having a standard size, for example, a standard electrical socket, or a standard plastic bottle of water, or a smartphone, and utilizing a lookup table to determine a real-life size of such known item based on pre-defined data, and then utilizing a ratio calculation to determine; for example, if a smartphone is shown in the photo and occupies a height of 100 pixels, then determining that each 100 pixels in the photo correspond to approximately 16 centimeters in real life, and from this ratio calculating or estimating the real-life dimensions of recognized body parts of the user in that image).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a clothing-article recommendation unit 5013, to receive an image of said user (e.g., a captured selfie, or an uploaded photo, or a link to a stored photo); to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image (e.g., as detailed above); to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user (e.g., as mentioned above; for example, by utilizing a pre-defined lookup table that matches a particular clothing size, such as “XL”, with a particular set of dimensions of chest, waist, and/or other body parts); to search a digital catalog of clothes for clothing articles that are provided in said particular size (e.g., if the system estimates that the matching size should be “XL”, then, excluding from the search results any results of products that are not offered at that size of “XL”, or, by performing a search only for products that are offered at that particular size); and to present to said user the results of said search.

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a clothing-article recommendation unit 5013, to receive an image of said user (as detailed above), to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image (as detailed above), to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user (as detailed above), to search a digital catalog of clothes for clothing articles that other users, who also have said dimensions, had purchased, and to present to said user the results of said search; for example, by determining that the user's body size is “XS”, and searching the online catalog only for products that are offered at this particular size, and/or by searching historical purchase transactions of other user's whose body size was estimated to be “XS” based on their own images that had been similarly processed by the system.

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a shading effect generator 5014, to receive an image of a clothing article (as detailed above), to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user (as detailed above, for example, by fusing together a processed image of the user sans the background, with a processed image of the product); and to modify the combined image to reflect a shading of a particular portion of said clothing article due to a body-part of said user (e.g., based on a computer vision process that determines or generates an illumination map for the image or for the user, and determines a particular portion of the clothing article that should be depicted as shaded based on the casting of a shadow by a body-part of the user such as his arm or his chin in view of the user's standing position or posture and/or illumination condition, and/or taking into account one or more detected folding portions or folded portions of the clothing article that are determined to cast a shadow on a nearby region of the clothing article).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a device-removal unit 5015, to receive a selfie image of said user which depicts said user holding said electronic device; to apply a computerized vision process that detects the image-portion that depicts said electronic device (e.g., by applying a computer vision algorithm or an image recognition process, that recognizes a generally-rectangular or generally-cuboid item, having a ratio of width to length in accordance with pre-defined ratio values or a range of values such as 2:3 or 2:3.5, and/or identifying or detecting that the item estimated to be a smartphone is indeed depicted as being held by a recognized hand or palm of the user in that image); to selectively replace said image-portion with a replacement portion that excludes said electronic device (e.g., by replacing that image-portion that showed the smartphone, with an image-portion that shows the shirt of the user if it is recognized by the system that the smartphone was held in a position that partially hid the shirt of the user in that image); wherein the system is to generate a combined user-and-product image that depicts said user engaging with said product and wherein the combined image excludes an image of said end-user device (e.g., by generating fused image, based on a processed version of the image of the product, and the processed image of the user from which the smartphone portion was removed or replaced).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a product-image correcting unit 5016, to receive an image of said product, wherein the image depicts said product worn by a human model (e.g., by retrieving from an online catalog or a website of a retailer, an image corresponding to a search query of “red shirt SKU 3578”, and by detecting via computer vision algorithm or image recognition process that the retrieved image contains a depiction of the red shirt being worn by a human model; or by utilizing a lookup table or a pre-definition which indicates that all the images of shirts (or other type of items) on a particular website or catalog are always depicted as being worn by a human model); to modify said image of said product by removing image-portions that correspond to body-parts of said human model (e.g., by using a computer vision process or image recognition process, to identify or recognize the depicted body parts such as face and arms, and to replace them with a white background or other filling); to further modify said image of said product by selectively filling with a particular image-texture, at least one image-portion that, in said image, depicted a body-portion of said human image hiding a portion of said product (e.g., based on the computer vision or image recognition process, to detect that a braid of hair of the human model, in the original image of the product, obstructs or hides a portion of the product such as the shirt, and to remove that hair portion that hides the shirt, and to replace it with a filling that corresponds to nearby color(s) or texture of the shirt).

In some embodiments, system 5000 may comprise a clothing-article presentation unit 5017, to receive a user selection of a particular clothing article (e.g., based on a user selection from an online catalog or an online retailer, or from a set of search results); to generate a plurality of image-based search result, wherein each one of the image-based search result depicts said same particular clothing article depicted as worn by a different human user; for example, by producing a single template or mask of the product image, sans any background, and sans portions that correspond to a human model that may be depicted in the original image of the product, such removal of human model or of background being performed by utilizing computer vision or image recognition process; and to generate multiple different fused-versions of the product mask, each version depicts a fusion of that same product mask with a different user-mask or user-template, wherein each user-mask or user-template corresponds to or depicts a different human user; thereby generating a gallery of multiple different users that are virtually dressed, each one separately, with the same clothing article (e.g., red shirt); each fused image of user-and-clothes being shown on the same background (e.g., against the same background of an office room), or being shown on different backgrounds (e.g., a first human user depicted to wear the red shirt and depicted to be located in an office room, and nearby, a second and different human user depicted to wear the same red shirt but depicted to be located in a kitchen). The present invention may be utilized in, or with, or in conjunction with, a variety of devices or systems; for example, a smartphone, a tablet, a smart-watch, a “magic mirror” device intended for utilization at real-life stores, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a device having an imager or camera, a vehicular device or unit, a gaming device, a gaming console, a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device or helmet or glasses or headgear, an Augmented Reality (AR) device or helmet or glasses or headgear, an Internet of Things (IoT) device or appliance, an Internet-connected device or appliance, a wireless-connected device or appliance, and/or other suitable systems and devices.

The present invention includes a system comprising: a user-image obtaining module (5001), to obtain a user-image of a user of an electronic device; an image-mask generator (5002), to generate a user-mask image that corresponds to said user-image processed to exclude background image-data of said user-image; a product-mask generator (5003), to receive a product-image of a particular product, and to generate from said image a product-mask image that corresponds to said product image processed to exclude background image-data of said product-image; a user-and-product combination-image generator (5004), to receive said product-mask image and said user-mask image, and to generate from them a combined user-and-product image that depicts said user engaging with said product.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a search-result tailoring unit (5005), to receive a plurality of search results in response to a user query that searches for a product, and to modify each one of said search result by replacing each one of said search results with a combination image that depicts said user engaging with said product.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a clothes-and-user tailoring unit (5006), to receive a user-image of said user, to receive a user-query for a clothing article, to generate a plurality of image-based search results in response to said user-query, wherein each image-based search result corresponds to a different instance of said clothing article, to modify each image-based search result into a combined image that depicts a combination of said user wearing said instance of the clothing article; to present to said user a set of image-based search results, wherein each image-based search result comprises a combined image that depicts the combination of said user wearing said instance of the clothing article.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a clothes-and-user tailoring unit (5006), to receive from a first user, a user-image of a second, different, user, to receive from said first user, a user-query for a clothing article, to generate a plurality of image-based search results in response to said user-query, wherein each image-based search result corresponds to a different instance of said clothing article, to modify each image-based search result into a combined image that depicts a combination of said second user wearing said instance of the clothing article; to present to said first user a set of image-based search results, wherein each image-based search result comprises the combined image that depicts the combination of said second user wearing said instance of the clothing article.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a background replacement module (5007), to receive from said user a selection of a particular product, to receive from said user the user-image of said user, to generate and to present to said user, a set of different images, each image depicting said user engaging with said particular product but on a different image-background. In some embodiments, the system comprises: an image perspective correction unit (5008), to receive said user-image which depicts said user in a non-frontal perspective, to generate from said user-image a modified user-image which depicts said user in a frontal perspective, to generate a user-and-product combination image that depicts said user engaging with a particular product in a frontal perspective.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a realistic wrinkles generator (5009), to receive an image of a clothing article, to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user, and to modify the combined image to further comprise images of wrinkles that are determined by taking into account at least one of: image perspective, gravity effect, product dimensions.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a gravitational effect generator (5010), to receive an image of a clothing article, to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user, and to modify the combined image to reflect an effect of gravitational force a particular portion of said clothing article.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a user-body image modifier (5011), to receive an image of the user in which at least one of the user's arms or hands is not positioned generally towards the ground, to modify said image of the user into a modified image in which both user arms and user hands are positioned generally towards the ground, and to generate a combined user-and-product image that depicts that user, as modified in said modified image, wearing said particular product.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a clothing-article size estimator (5012), to receive an image of said user, to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image, and to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a clothing-article recommendation unit (5013), to receive an image of said user, to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image, to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user, to search a digital catalog of clothes for clothing articles that are provided in said particular size, and to present to said user the results of said search.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a clothing-article recommendation unit (5013), to receive an image of said user, to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image, to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user, to search a digital catalog of clothes for clothing articles that other users, who also have said dimensions, had purchased, and to present to said user the results of said search.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a shading effect generator (5014), to receive an image of a clothing article, to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user, and to modify the combined image to reflect a shading of a particular portion of said clothing article due to a body-part of said user.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a device-removal unit (5015), to receive a selfie image of said user which depicts said user holding said electronic device, to apply a computerized vision process that detects the image-portion that depicts said electronic device, to selectively replace said image-portion with a replacement portion that excludes said electronic device; wherein the system is to generate a combined user-and-product image that depicts said user engaging with said product and wherein the combined image excludes an image of said end-user device.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a product-image correcting unit (5016), to receive an image of said product, wherein the image depicts said product worn by a human model, to modify said image of said product by removing image-portions that correspond to body-parts of said human model, to further modify said image of said product by selectively filling with a particular image-texture, at least one image-portion that, in said image, depicted a body-portion of said human image hiding a portion of said product.

In some embodiments, the system comprises: a clothing-article presentation unit (5017), to receive a user selection of a particular clothing article, to generate a plurality of image-based search result, wherein each one of the image-based search result depicts said same particular clothing article depicted as worn by a different human user.

The present invention includes system, device, and method of image processing, particularly utilizing machine learning and computer vision. A user selects a particular shirt from an online catalog; and instead of seeing an image of the shirt on the shelf or being worn by a model, the system generates and shows to the user an image of that particular shirt being virtually dressed by that particular user. The user requests the system to show search results for blue pants; and instead of producing generic images of blue pants, on the shelf or worn by various models, the system generates user-tailored search results that shown various types of blue pants being virtually worn by the user himself, or virtually worn by a particular other person that is selected by the user. The system enhances the product image by correcting it and by adding realistically-looking shading and wrinkles.

Some embodiments comprise a method for processing user selectable product images and facilitating visualization-assisted coordinated product transactions, the method comprising: identifying one or more products having one or more associated product images; image processing said one or more said product images by incorporating said image(s) into an anchor image to generate a composite anchor image that depicts said one or more products according to an intended manner of use thereof; said image processing including using product dimension information to scale said one or more product images as necessary to match a scale of said anchor image; causing said composite anchor image to be displayed; causing one or more user interface elements to be displayed in association with said composite anchor image, said one or more user interface elements being operable to initiate a coordinated product transaction involving said one or more products; and responsive to said one or more user interface elements being activated, initiating said coordinated product transaction.

In some embodiments, there are two or more products with two or more corresponding product images, and said composite anchor image depicts said two or more products in a spatial relationship corresponding to an intended manner of use of said two or more products.

In some embodiments, said product dimension information is obtained from product dimension data maintained in association with said one or more products or is derived from numeric or alphanumeric product size data maintained in association with said one or more products.

In some embodiments, said coordinated product transaction is one of a purchase transaction or a redirect transaction.

In some embodiments, said one or more product images are retrieved from separate sources of said one or more products.

In some embodiments, said one or more product images are retrieved from a single source of all of said one or more products.

In some embodiments, said composite anchor image depicts only said one or more products and a background that is blank or includes a background image.

In some embodiments, said composite anchor image depicts said one or more products being worn by an anthropomorphic entity.

In some embodiments, said anthropomorphic entity comprises an image of a human that may be a user image received from a user system or device.

In some embodiments, said anchor image includes a background image and said human image or said background image are scaled to match each other.

In some embodiments, a system comprises: one or more processors operably coupled to one or more memory devices; program instructions stored in said memory and executable by said one or more processors to perform operations for processing user selectable product images and facilitating visualization-assisted coordinated product transactions, said operations comprising: identifying one or more products having one or more associated product images; image processing said one or more product images by incorporating said image(s) into an anchor image to generate a composite anchor image that depicts said one or more products according to an intended manner of use thereof; said image processing including using product dimension information to scale said one or more product images as necessary to match a scale of said anchor image; causing said composite anchor image to be displayed; causing one or more user interface elements to be displayed in association with said composite anchor image, said one or more user interface elements being operable to initiate a coordinated product transaction involving said one or more products; and responsive to said one or more user interface elements being activated, initiating said coordinated product transaction.

The present invention includes a process for combining user selectable product images and facilitating visualization-assisted coordinated product acquisition. One or more products having one or more associated product images may be identified. The one or more product images may be image processed by incorporating the image(s) into an anchor image to generate a composite anchor image that depicts the one or more products according to an intended manner of use thereof. The image processing may include using product dimension information to scale the one or more product images as necessary to match a scale of the anchor image. The composite anchor image may be caused to be displayed in association with one or more user interface elements, the user interface elements being operable to initiate a coordinated product transaction involving the one or more products. Responsive to the one or more user interface elements being activated, the coordinated product transaction may be initiated.

The system(s) of the present invention may optionally comprise, or may be implemented by utilizing suitable hardware components and/or software components; for example, processors, processor cores, Central Processing Units (CPUs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), circuits, Integrated Circuits (ICs), controllers, memory units, registers, accumulators, storage units, input units (e.g., touch-screen, keyboard, keypad, stylus, mouse, touchpad, joystick, trackball, microphones), output units (e.g., screen, touch-screen, monitor, display unit, audio speakers), acoustic sensor(s), optical sensor(s), wired or wireless modems or transceivers or transmitters or receivers, GPS receiver or GPS element or other location-based or location-determining unit or system, network elements (e.g., routers, switches, hubs, antennas), and/or other suitable components and/or modules. The system(s) of the present invention may optionally be implemented by utilizing co-located components, remote components or modules, “cloud computing” servers or devices or storage, client/server architecture, peer-to-peer architecture, distributed architecture, and/or other suitable architectures or system topologies or network topologies.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, calculations, operations and/or determinations may be performed locally within a single device, or may be performed by or across multiple devices, or may be performed partially locally and partially remotely (e.g., at a remote server) by optionally utilizing a communication channel to exchange raw data and/or processed data and/or processing results.

Although portions of the discussion herein relate, for demonstrative purposes, to wired links and/or wired communications, some embodiments are not limited in this regard, but rather, may utilize wired communication and/or wireless communication; may include one or more wired and/or wireless links; may utilize one or more components of wired communication and/or wireless communication; and/or may utilize one or more methods or protocols or standards of wireless communication.

Some embodiments may be implemented by using a special-purpose machine or a specific-purpose device that is not a generic computer, or by using a non-generic computer or a non-general computer or machine. Such system or device may utilize or may comprise one or more components or units or modules that are not part of a “generic computer” and that are not part of a “general purpose computer”, for example, cellular transceivers, cellular transmitter, cellular receiver, GPS unit, location-determining unit, accelerometer(s), gyroscope(s), device-orientation detectors or sensors, device-positioning detectors or sensors, or the like.

Some embodiments may be implemented as, or by utilizing, an automated method or automated process, or a machine-implemented method or process, or as a semi-automated or partially-automated method or process, or as a set of steps or operations which may be executed or performed by a computer or machine or system or other device.

Some embodiments may be implemented by using code or program code or machine-readable instructions or machine-readable code, which may be stored on a non-transitory storage medium or non-transitory storage article (e.g., a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a physical memory unit, a physical storage unit), such that the program or code or instructions, when executed by a processor or a machine or a computer, cause such processor or machine or computer to perform a method or process as described herein. Such code or instructions may be or may comprise, for example, one or more of: software, a software module, an application, a program, a subroutine, instructions, an instruction set, computing code, words, values, symbols, strings, variables, source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code; including (but not limited to) code or instructions in high-level programming language, low-level programming language, object-oriented programming language, visual programming language, compiled programming language, interpreted programming language, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby on Rails, Go, Cobol, Fortran, ActionScript, AJAX, XML, JSON, Lisp, Eiffel, Verilog, Hardware Description Language (HDL, BASIC, Visual BASIC, Matlab, Pascal, HTML, HTML5, CSS, Perl, Python, PHP, machine language, machine code, assembly language, or the like.

Discussions herein utilizing terms such as, for example, “processing”, “computing”, “calculating”, “determining”, “establishing”, “analyzing”, “checking”, “detecting”, “measuring”, or the like, may refer to operation(s) and/or process(es) of a processor, a computer, a computing platform, a computing system, or other electronic device or computing device, that may automatically and/or autonomously manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within registers and/or accumulators and/or memory units and/or storage units into other data or that may perform other suitable operations. The terms “plurality” and “a plurality”, as used herein, include, for example, “multiple” or “two or more”. For example, “a plurality of items” includes two or more items.

References to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “demonstrative embodiment”, “various embodiments”, “some embodiments”, and/or similar terms, may indicate that the embodiment(s) so described may optionally include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Furthermore, repeated use of the phrase “in one embodiment” does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, although it may. Similarly, repeated use of the phrase “in some embodiments” does not necessarily refer to the same set or group of embodiments, although it may.

As used herein, and unless otherwise specified, the utilization of ordinal adjectives such as “first”, “second”, “third”, “fourth”, and so forth, to describe an item or an object, merely indicates that different instances of such like items or objects are being referred to; and does not intend to imply as if the items or objects so described must be in a particular given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other ordering manner.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-way radio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communication systems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, a Personal Communication Systems (PCS) device, a PDA or handheld device which incorporates wireless communication capabilities, a mobile or portable Global Positioning System (GPS) device, a device which incorporates a GPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFID element or chip, a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transceiver or device, a Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) transceiver or device, a Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) transceiver or device, a device having one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard radio devices or systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a Smartphone, a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

Some embodiments may comprise, or may be implemented by using, an “app” or application which may be downloaded or obtained from an “app store” or “applications store”, for free or for a fee, or which may be pre-installed on a computing device or electronic device, or which may be otherwise transported to and/or installed on such computing device or electronic device. Functions, operations, components and/or features described herein with reference to one or more embodiments of the present invention, may be combined with, or may be utilized in combination with, one or more other functions, operations, components and/or features described herein with reference to one or more other embodiments of the present invention. The present invention may thus comprise any possible or suitable combinations, re-arrangements, assembly, re-assembly, or other utilization of some or all of the modules or functions or components that are described herein, even if they are discussed in different locations or different chapters of the above discussion, or even if they are shown across different drawings or multiple drawings.

While certain features of some demonstrative embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described herein, various modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the claims are intended to cover all such modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents. 

1. A system comprising: a user-image obtaining module (5001), to obtain a user-image of a user of an electronic device; an image-mask generator (5002), to generate a user-mask image that corresponds to said user-image processed to exclude background image-data of said user-image; a product-mask generator (5003), to receive a product-image of a particular product, and to generate from said image a product-mask image that corresponds to said product image processed to exclude background image-data of said product-image; a user-and-product combination-image generator (5004), to receive said product-mask image and said user-mask image, and to generate from them a combined user-and-product image that depicts said user engaging with said product.
 2. The system of claim 1, comprising: a search-result tailoring unit (5005), to receive a plurality of search results in response to a user query that searches for a product, and to modify each one of said search result by replacing each one of said search results with a combination image that depicts said user engaging with said product.
 3. The system of claim 1, comprising: a clothes-and-user tailoring unit (5006), to receive a user-image of said user, to receive a user-query for a clothing article, to generate a plurality of image-based search results in response to said user-query, wherein each image-based search result corresponds to a different instance of said clothing article, to modify each image-based search result into a combined image that depicts a combination of said user wearing said instance of the clothing article; to present to said user a set of image-based search results, wherein each image-based search result comprises a combined image that depicts the combination of said user wearing said instance of the clothing article.
 4. The system of claim 1, comprising: a clothes-and-user tailoring unit (5006), to receive from a first user, a user-image of a second, different, user, to receive from said first user, a user-query for a clothing article, to generate a plurality of image-based search results in response to said user-query, wherein each image-based search result corresponds to a different instance of said clothing article, to modify each image-based search result into a combined image that depicts a combination of said second user wearing said instance of the clothing article; to present to said first user a set of image-based search results, wherein each image-based search result comprises the combined image that depicts the combination of said second user wearing said instance of the clothing article.
 5. The system of claim 1, comprising: a background replacement module (5007), to receive from said user a selection of a particular product, to receive from said user the user-image of said user, to generate and to present to said user, a set of different images, each image depicting said user engaging with said particular product but on a different image-background.
 6. The system of claim 1, comprising: an image perspective correction unit (5008), to receive said user-image which depicts said user in a non-frontal perspective, to generate from said user-image a modified user-image which depicts said user in a frontal perspective, to generate a user-and-product combination image that depicts said user engaging with a particular product in a frontal perspective.
 7. The system of claim 1, comprising: a realistic wrinkles generator (5009), to receive an image of a clothing article, to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user, and to modify the combined image to further comprise images of wrinkles that are determined by taking into account at least one of: image perspective, gravity effect, product dimensions.
 8. The system of claim 1, comprising: a gravitational effect generator (5010), to receive an image of a clothing article, to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user, and to modify the combined image to reflect an effect of gravitational force a particular portion of said clothing article.
 9. The system of claim 1, comprising: a user-body image modifier (5011), to receive an image of the user in which at least one of the user's arms or hands is not positioned generally towards the ground, to modify said image of the user into a modified image in which both user arms and user hands are positioned generally towards the ground, and to generate a combined user-and-product image that depicts that user, as modified in said modified image, wearing said particular product.
 10. The system of claim 1, comprising: a clothing-article size estimator (5012), to receive an image of said user, to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image, and to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user.
 11. The system of claim 1, comprising: a clothing-article recommendation unit (5013), to receive an image of said user, to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image, to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user, to search a digital catalog of clothes for clothing articles that are provided in said particular size, and to present to said user the results of said search.
 12. The system of claim 1, comprising: a clothing-article recommendation unit (5013), to receive an image of said user, to determine real-life dimensions of multiple body parts of said user as depicted in said image, to determine from said dimensions a size of a clothing-article that would match said user, to search a digital catalog of clothes for clothing articles that other users, who also have said dimensions, had purchased, and to present to said user the results of said search.
 13. The system of claim 1, comprising: a shading effect generator (5014), to receive an image of a clothing article, to generate a combined image of said clothing article worn by said user, and to modify the combined image to reflect a shading of a particular portion of said clothing article due to a body-part of said user.
 14. The system of claim 1, comprising: a device-removal unit (5015), to receive a selfie image of said user which depicts said user holding said electronic device, to apply a computerized vision process that detects the image-portion that depicts said electronic device, to selectively replace said image-portion with a replacement portion that excludes said electronic device; wherein the system is to generate a combined user-and-product image that depicts said user engaging with said product and wherein the combined image excludes an image of said end-user device.
 15. The system of claim 1, comprising: a product-image correcting unit (5016), to receive an image of said product, wherein the image depicts said product worn by a human model, to modify said image of said product by removing image-portions that correspond to body-parts of said human model, to further modify said image of said product by selectively filling with a particular image-texture, at least one image-portion that, in said image, depicted a body-portion of said human image hiding a portion of said product.
 16. The system of claim 1, comprising: a clothing-article presentation unit (5017), to receive a user selection of a particular clothing article, to generate a plurality of image-based search result, wherein each one of the image-based search result depicts said same particular clothing article depicted as worn by a different human user. 